Photo via Cannabis Culture
Legal weed is going global. While Americans are still subject to years of federal jail time for bringing bud from one legal state to another, the rest of the world is already treating cannabis like any other consumer product, exporting and importing government-approved reefer to medical marijuana programs across Canada and Europe. In the latest expansion of global ganja sales, Canada’s second largest legal cultivator, Aurora Cannabis, will soon begin importing their THC-laden products to Italy.
According to a report from Reuters, Aurora will use its German subsidiary Pedanios to export weed into Europe, before passing the product along to the Italian Ministry of Defense. Since Italy first legalized medical cannabis in 2007, the country’s military police has been the sole cultivator and provider of medicinal marijuana, producing up to 220 pounds of pot a year in tightly guarded military facilities.
But with demand now outweighing Italian soldiers’ limited supply, the Italian government has opened the program to imported flowers, awarding Aurora the country’s first out-of-state medical cannabis contract.
Hot on the heels of a multi-million dollar deal between Aurora and one of Denmark’s largest tomato producers to cultivate cannabis in the European Union, the Italian job is yet another move in Canada’s path to global cannabis domination.
Already available in Germany, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Australia, and more, Canadian cannabis experts predict B.C. Bud and other varieties of Northern green to become as ubiquitous as maple syrup and Drake records — a trend set to grow exponentially in July of this year, when the country is expected to legalize adult-use cannabis entirely.
"I think it means that we'll be a global player," corporate cannabis lawyer Ranjeev Dhillon told CBC News of Canada’s role in the legal weed market. "This could be our opportunity to be viewed the same as we are in mining or hockey. We'll be world class and be world leaders and I think that will stay to be the case for a very, very long time."
Aurora alone operates over 90,000 square feet of cannabis cultivation space across Canada, and is also developing the world’s largest cannabis-specific greenhouse, coming in at a humongous 800,000 square feet, currently finishing construction near Edmonton’s international airport — a strategic placement that will presumably see thousands of pounds of pot take off for foreign destinations in coming years.
