Niagara College gets Health Canada licence to grow marijuana
Published September 21, 2021 at 4:10 pm
There’s not many colleges in Canada that can say that Health Canada has issued them a licence to grow marijuana.
But Niagara College, based in Niagara-on-the-Lake, can.
However, where this marijuana may not be the type that some students prefer is that it’s industrial hemp, the type used for home insulation, textiles, paper, biofuel, cannabidiol (CBD) for medical uses, and even food.
Industrial hemp differs from recreational marijuana because it’s non-intoxicating, containing 0.3 per cent or less THC.
The college needed the licence for their Commercial Cannabis Production program which provides hands-on learning and academic research opportunities that will enable students to advance Canada’s hemp and cannabis industries when they graduate.
Students will study plant genetics, seeding and germination, flower identification, harvesting and drying hemp.
In anticipation of the licence, production of industrial hemp is already under way at the college where students grew a small field crop in the hop yard used by the Brewery Program this past summer.