Marijuana remains a controversial substance globally. Since ancient times it has been used as treatment of a different health related conditions, but since the 1900s its used has been smeared with immorality and drug miss use. However, since the early 2000s the reputation of this drug has been making a U-turn.
Many countries have been legalizing the use of marijuana, also called cannabis, for medical purposes. Places like America, Canada and Italy are producing medical grade marijuana for patients suffering from different illnesses.
In for instance America, marijuana has been legalized for medical use in 29 states, as well as the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the District of Columbia. In the United States, it was California that first legalized medical marijuana in 1996, but it was Hawaii that legalized the use of this drug by state legislature. It should be stated that this drug is still illegal under Federal Law in the United States of America.
As the market to produce and distribute marijuana opened, so did many producers entered. Most entrepreneurs trying, and in many cases very successfully cashing into the legalization of medical marijuana.
Below are some of the biggest producers located in North America.
Canopy Growth Corporation
Canopy Growth Corporation is a company based out of Smith Falls, Ontario, Canada. This company owns Tweed, Tweed Farms, and Bedrocan Canada. But the company also brought out Mettrum Health Corporation. After the takeover of the different companies, the main company Tweed Marijuana Inc. was rebranded to Canopy Growth Corporation in September 2015.
Nevertheless, all together this company has 568,000 square feet of producing operation space. This makes Canopy Growth Corporation the biggest producer in North America. Their brand has found appeal among an array of customers, doctors and strategic industry partners.
The company is led by its CEO and founder Bruce Linton. Another founder of the company is Chuck Rifici. Under the leadership of Linton, the company has been growing. For instance, Canopy Growth Corporation’s one operation, Tweed has made several acquisitions of smaller producers thereby allowing it to gain a foothold as the leader provider from coast to coast in Canada.
7 Acres
Based in Kincardine, Ontario, Canada, 7 Aces has a 7 acres producing space, which is 304 920 square feet. This licensed medical marijuana producing company in Canada is wholly owned by Supreme Pharmaceuticals Inc, with its CEO John Fowler.
7 Acres is the second largest producer in North America.
OrganiGram
The licensed medical marijuana producer, OrganiGram is based in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. This company, that began operations in 2013 are currently the third biggest producer in North America, owns two facilities that together equal 227 500 square feet.
More so, the company is a TSX Venture Exchange listed company whose wholly owned subsidiary, Organigram Inc. In addition, the company, OrganiGram is led by the pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industry veteran, Greg Engel, which took the role of CEO in March of 2017.
Besides the production of medical grade marijuana, this company also produces Banook OrganiOil, Rossignal OrganiOil and Utopia OrganiOil. However it is the different strains of majiuana it is known for. These range from Kush blend to their premium blend, Low Tide.
Copperstate Farms
The fourth biggest marijuana producer in North America is Copperstate Farms. This company has 217,800 square feet under production in Snowflake, Arizona, in the United States.
This company brought an old 40-acre tomato greenhouse site with the aim of retrofitting it for producing cannabis. This company has only managed to turn five acres in operation.
22 percent of Copperstate Farms is owned by the Canadian company Aphria, which is a federally licensed Canadian medical marijuana producer, after it invested 3 million dollars into the company. The company Aphria has operations in Canada, Florida and Arizona. This company was co-founded by Cole Cacciavillani and John Cervini. The products that this company focuses on are dried bud and cannabis oil. That all said, Copperstate Farms still owns majority of the shares.
GrowHealthy
GrowHealthy, which is based in Lake Wales, Florida, in the United States, is the fifth largest medical marijuana producer in North America. This company is operating a 200,000 square foot facility. The company is been led by its CEO Don Clifford.
West Edge Llc
The very private company, West Edge Llc, is located in Wilcox, Arizona, in America. In fact, the address of the operation is Greenhouse Road, about 12 miles north of Willcox. This company operates around 188000 square feet of medical marijuana facility, since it was granted the rights to produce medical marijuana. John Curran, Jr, started the application for the license. More so, this company is the sixth largest producer in North America.
Tryke Companies
With operations in Arizona and Nevada, in the United States, this company operates as Reed Dispensaries in both states. The biggest city of operation is Las Vegas. More so, this company has 165,000 square feet of producing space. However, they have the potential for extend their operations to an extra half million square feet. Still, they are the seventh largest producer in North America.
The company is led by its CEO Matthew Morgan. Morgan is also the founder of the company.
The company produced a new strain of marijuana called Khalifa Kush. They teamed up with the rapper Wiz Khalifa to brand this strain under his name.
LivWell
LivWell is based in Denver, Colorado, in the United States and is led by the CEO John Lord. This company has a chain of dispensaries, and have two producing centers with a combined size of 162,000 square feet. This also makes them the eight largest producer of medical marijuana in North America.
Revolution Enterprises
The company Revolution Enterprises has two producing centers in Illinois, in America. Each center measures around 75,000 square feet.
This ninth largest producer in North America and the company is led under the guidance of Tim McGraw as CEO.
Green Man Cannabis
Green Man Cannabis is the tenth biggest producer of medical marijuana in North America. The company is based in Denver Colorado. They have two facilities that have a combined size of 128,000 square feet.
This company was foundered and is currently headed by its CEO, Christian Hageseth.
