MedReleaf: Turning Dope into Hope

Business potential of marijuana has seldom been in doubt. The recent stamp of approval from Canadian lawmakers however, has suddenly added a dash of white to it.

After years of filing paperwork, planning presentations and understanding the medical benefits, Health Canada finally approved commercial production of Marijuana under regulations for prescribed medication only. Like Israel before them, it is a ground-breaking achievement for the distinctive ‘grass’ hitherto pigeonholed as a contraband drug.

That reputation is partly the reason that the sprawling 55,000 square-foot MedReleaf warehouse in Markham, Ontario has kept away from media glare. It protects the plants, and the employees from garnering the unwelcome kind of attention.

However, when scribes and media personnel from Metro News Canada visited the facilities recently, they had nothing but good vibes to relay.

For a start, the production unit boasts of high quality safety and health measures. Floors, HVAC and storage facilities are hygienic to the point of meeting the steep standards of ISO 8 (at part with clinical operating rooms) – something which enables MedReleaf to brand their product as “Medical grade Marijuana”. Head of quality control, Angelo Fefekos certainly carried the compulsively clean standards from his previous workplace of Mount Sinai hospitals. He adds more rain-checks like testing gloved hands for contamination and disinfecting trimming and cutting equipments. While Health Canada only mandates checks on end products, such mid-level testing certainly adds medical finesse to the procedure.

CEO Neil Closnerfurther explains the involvement, and his faith in the government, who were serious about regulating the medical marijuana production and endorsing its effects when monitored in prescribed quantities. The particular high quality strains (Avidekel), rich in anti-inflammatory properties, but low on hallucinatory chemicals makes for a great medicinal material. Nutrients, light and water in the facility are regulated equally well. Furthermore, the inventory count of what goes in and out of trimming room is strictly monitored, as is the air quality, vacuum seal and even the rollover stocks (Stored in a safe, inside physical barriers and another level of electronic security). 

MedReleaf is turning pot into a pot of gold for new investors too, who see the business potential in an increasingly legalized prescription medicine field. The scopes of this particular medicine species can blossom as the MedReleaf would be the first ever pharmaceutical company to introduce effectively processed cannabis derived marijuana and other diverse medicinal grass plant essentials for mitigating and treating several human strain and neurologic health driven issues and disorders.

As the warehouse explores bigger business capacity, targeting 150,000 organic plants in near future, and a target patient base of nearly 10,000 you wonder how science can turn the ‘poison’ into ‘elixir’ by merely staying true to its purpose.  As the scribes from Metro reported, that familiar smell didn’t seem all that harmful any more.