With an eye on the lucrative market for cannabis-infused edibles, a London-based pot producer is tapping an American company to set up an extraction operation at its south-end facility. The move comes as marijuana companies across Canada are preparing for the introduction of edibles, concentrates and topicals to the market in the fall.
The federal government pledged to greenlight the sale of the products by Oct. 17 — one year after recreational pot was legalized — but uncertainty remains about when consumers will be able to munch pot brownies and vape cannabis concentrates.
Indiva announced this week it’s working with Lucid Lab Group, a Seattle-based maker of cannabis extraction and refinement technologies.
“We know we have an opportunity to take more of a leadership role on the edibles side because we’ve been aggressive,” Indiva chief executive Niel Marotta said Friday. “We want to be ready for next fall for sure.”
Indiva previously struck a licensing deal with Ruby Edibles, a company that makes cannabis-infused sugar and salt. The company also has a joint with Bhang, a U.S. manufacturer of cannabis chocolates and vape pens, which gives it the right to produce and sell products under that brand.
Bill Blair, the country’s pot point-man, said this week the government is committed to completing the final regulations for edibles by Oct. 17, but he suggested there could be a gap between the products getting approval for sale and when they actually hit the shelves.
Blair, also the minister of border security and organized crime reduction, cited the 17-week gap between the federal government passing the law legalizing recreational marijuana last June before sales of the drug began on Oct. 17, 2018.
This article was originally published by The London Free Press.