Investors get buzz of Canadian marijuana
CHESTERVILLE, Ontario — Inside garage-sized containers at one end of a cavernous warehouse in a former Nestlé factory south of Ottawa are rows of marijuana plants stacked atop each other, basking in the unearthly glow of grow lights.
They belong to Hamed Asi, an Ontario businessman who calls them his “vertical farm.” He has no background in growing marijuana or in any kind of agriculture.
A financial boom not seen since the dot-com mania of the late 1990s has overtaken Canada. The legalization of recreational marijuana, scheduled for this autumn, is a rare opportunity for entrepreneurs like Asi to be in on the birth of what they hope will become a multibillion-dollar industry.
Marijuana growers have plowed millions into investments that, without having recorded profits yet, have stock market values measured in billions. Down-on-their-luck towns like Chesterville, hope that marijuana will reverse economic decline.
Some provincial governments forecast that tax revenue from marijuana sales will help balance their budgets. And companies offering every kind of service or product — from real estate to packaging — are all out for a piece of the action.
Asi’s dreams of wealth are sprouting in a former factory that once turned out pallets of Nestlé Quik. He acknowledges the risks inherent in what has already become a highly competitive industry.
“You can’t just do this because everyone else is doing it,” he said. “We see how good this industry can be if you do it right, but you’ve got to really be diligent.”
This month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired the starting gun for Canada’s new gold rush by announcing that legalization of recreational marijuana will begin on Oct. 17, months later than the original plan of Canada Day, July 1.