The perfect cannabis crop lies behind a series of airlock doors, heavily protected by a team of top growers on a mission to give Australians the highest calibre of medicinal cannabis.
Carefully crafted over seven years, the medically flawless plant housed in Brisbane’s Heathwood is almost ready for harvesting and will soon better the lives of thousands.
Few visitors have been allowed into the secret facility and those privileged enough to peak behind the veil must don white lab coats, bright blue bootees and hairnets just to step near the precious plant, ensuring they don’t contaminate years of hard work.
The cannabis farm developed by Medcan will eventually produce 6000kg of dried marijuana flower per year that’s worth about $60 million and helps at least 25,000 Australians.
Sitting on 3,000 square metres, the facility has cost $12 million to erect and is now the largest and most hi-tech vertical grow-house in the Southern Hemisphere boasting a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system that could power half of Brisbane Airport.
The facility officially opened on Monday and contains six cultivation rooms designed specifically for each propagation stage, allowing the plant to grow and dry out in a highly controlled environment.
The plants undergo three months of preparation before they‘re packaged on site and sent to pharmacies for collection.
In two months time, Medcan will harvest its first commercial crop of about 2200 plants.
Demand for medicinal cannabis is increasing in Australia, with about 80-90 per cent of patients relying on imports, mainly from Canada where only local growers are permitted to produce medicinal cannabis.
Medcan joint cofounder’s and chief executives Craig Cochran and Gareth Ball said now that demand was heavily outweighing supply, companies like Medcan could further invest in local marijuana manufacturing.
“The goal has always been for Australian manufacturing,” Mr Cochran said.
“Imported products were basically allowed as a stop gap initially to allow Australian patient to access medicinal cannabis but ultimately Australian production is what were striving for.
“This is our pilot plant, we’d ideally like to go an custom build something at another location obviously at a scale up.”
Medcan currently services about 10-15 per cent of Australia’s medicinal cannabis patients, and Mr Cochran said demand was growing “exponentially, month by month”.
“More doctors are prescribing, doctor acceptance is becoming greater and I guess public perception is increasing so industry is growing,” he said.
“The amount of patients were serving now still consume more medication than we can actually produce.
“It really goes back to doctor, pharmacy and social acceptance. It is a new medication.”
Prices would also drop dramatically if Australia was to produce its own medicinal cannabis rather than import Canada’s offcuts.
Currently an average patient pays between $50 and $200 out of pocket per month for medicinal cannabis, due to the prescription not yet listed on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS) list.
Medcan head of medical Laurence Kemp said doctors were also becoming more inclined to prescribe the traditionally taboo medicinal cannabis and patients experiencing the drug had provided word-of-mouth advertisement on its wide-ranging benefits.
“When I was in medical school, I was taught that cannabis was a drug abuse … it was it was a social problem, it was a medical problem,” Dr Kemp said.
“The fact that it could be used as a medicine to treat various conditions like chronic pain and mental health problems wasn’t even part of the curriculum so there has been a kind of a big shift in that, in terms of learning to think about it differently.
“In terms of the clinic I operate, we’re seeing increased patient numbers every week, about 115 new patients.”
The Brisbane Medcan cannabis farm is expected to reach full operational capacity by the end of the year, creating 100 jobs.
Specialising in vertical growing, where each cultivation room holds multiple levels of plants, has allowed the facility to increase the biomass on the building’s footprint.
The Medcan team pride themselves over their perfect cannabis recipe ensuring a consistent product.
Co Founder and chief executive Gareth Ball said doctors and patients needed reassurance that each plant was the same “over and over again,” with plans to build additional, larger facilities in Queensland as the market allows.
How it’s produced:
Each seedling has been cloned from the ultimate mother plant.
Seedlings are then encased and propagated in a moisture-controlled room.
Once seedlings reach maturity they are transferred to the second cultivation room with temperature and air control to help the plants grow to full size before harvest.
Plants will be weighed harvested and hung in state-of-the-art drying rooms with fan technology encased in the walls to ensure the crop is evenly dried.
After about two weeks the plants are reweighed, cut and cured to be ready for packaging.
Plants are sent to the sites in-built packaging service and sent to pharmacies in line with order numbers.
The process takes about 12 weeks total with each plant an exact replica of the one before it.
