user-friendly web presence in your industry? BD-S: It’s like any other company these days in that regard. It was important. But for us in particular and this industry in particular, it’s probably one of the most important pieces that we have to offer our patients. We have a very limited ability to advertise for anything and in addition to that we have a very limited ability to make any claims about effica- cyefficacy, so we use our website as a means for patients to login and talk about how they are being supported by Weed MD. We have a client portal, or a patient portal, where they can come on and see what strains we’re offering, what oils we’re offering, and what products we’re offering. It is a very important tool for our patients right now because we don’t have a retail storefront and all of our business is done online – like every other licensed producer in Canada, currently. Anything that is not online right now in Canada is not legal for the most part, in terms of its distribution of cannabis – that’s the bottom line. There are many different dispensaries that have been around for many, many, many years treating patients – and I know quite a few of them – and unfortunatelyunfortunately, they’re not covered under the terms of the ACMPR and we can’t sell them products. I think there is a lot of confusion around how dispensaries work and how they deal with patients and the product that they’re providing patients. That’s notwithstanding the fact that they have many, many great people who understand the industry and some who pioneered it from the very beginning. Some people will go get a prescription from a doctor and the doctor will give them literature and direct them to the list of LPs, like us, on the Health Canada website and they’ll say, “No, I’ll just go to the dispensary two doors down from where I live. They have got everything that I need and they can just take my prescription and sign me up.” I think a lot of patients don’t understand the legal scope of the industry. A lot of these places are very informative, I’m not saying they have bad products, I just don’t know how they test for what they provide their patients and I don’t know where the product comes from. Nobody does, except for the dispen- sary. Here, at Weed MD, everything we do is regulated and fully transparent. How we grow our plants and how we approve our product is around traceability from seed to sale. We know where every plant has been and what has touched our plants. Every- thing is on camera and everything has been tested from the beginning to the end –and in between. So with the whole battery of quality assurance and regular inspection by Health Canada, patients can enjoy our cannabis with peace of mind. I understand that the LCBO, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, will be the sole retailers of recreational cannabis come July 2018. As one of the larger LPs and given your potential for further expansion in your new
profiles. We have plants for example that are high THC but little CBD and then we have plants that have high CBD with little THC and there’s some that are one-to- one. We are constantly looking at strain development; we are constantly looking at better ways to improve the quality of our products and that’s because we are really listening to our patients. We have a team that really cares about what they do and who they’re doing it for. I’m really proud of this team. We have invested a lot of time bringing together the best in-class from our scientists to our cultivation team and growers, our distributors, and our customer service team. I hear the accolades all the time. We get so much positive feedback about how we treat our patients and how great the customer support and customer service experience is. It certainly makes me very proud to be part of this team. Are there practicum experiences for horticulture students at Weed MD, Bruce? I understand that college campuses across Canada are getting their students ready for opportunities in the cannabis industry. BD-S: We have a great relationship with the University of Guelph and we have the opportunity to bring-in interns regularly. It’s an emerging industry and young people are really answering the call. We have students working with us right now and we’ve hired people after graduation. “We are constantly looking at strain development; we are constantly looking at better ways to improve the quality of our products and that’s because we are really listening to our patients.” There are so many fantastic jobs in this business and opportunities at so many different levels of this industry. I think that the colleges and the universities that are really paying attention are putting together wonderful programs and we’re collaborating with them whenever we have the opportunity. Across Canada there is going to be a huge emergence of a need for people to come in and work in this industry. It is exciting times and anyone who comes into this industry right now in its infancy stages is going to get to take advantage of so many more opportunities.
We’re just scratching the surface.
The website is a patient’s or prospective patient’s dream come true. All the pertinent registration documents are available for print, including instructional medical documents to show to your doctor. How important was establishing such an informative, transparent, and
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2018 138
Made with FlippingBook Annual report