Brandon Veevers is happy in his work. He grows cannabis for a living – and he's good at it, because he's had 30 years' practice. The difference now? It's all legal. Because Veevers is the head grower at East Coast-based Hikurangi Cannabis Company.
He said it is the biggest bonus to be able to use his skills in something he loves to do. "Not having to hide away," he said, "being able to openly talk about it is awesome". The Hikurangi venture began three years ago with a hui in Ruatoria. The initial plan was to investigate the commercial potential of bioactive compounds derived from native plants.
Then last year, Hikurangi became the first New Zealand company to be granted a licence to grow low-THC cannabis for potential use in medicines. Fifty more companies have since applied for licences. But this year, Hikurangi was the first to be licensed to import and develop high-THC cannabis strains.
Hikurangi's chief executive Manu Caddie is pleased with another government decision - in the wake of last year's reform of medicinal cannabis law – that allows companies like Hikurangi to license local strains of cannabis. That is: cannabis bred over years of illicit growing.
"It was definitely a big bonus," says Caddie. "They can't do it in Australia. Most places in North America have had a very limited window for that opportunity – those that got in quick were able to lock it down and others could not access the same varieties.
"It's going to be good for the industry in New Zealand. It puts us a step ahead of many of our competitors. And there's a number of things the government is doing which are going to be great for the New Zealand industry. We're going to leapfrog a lot of those jurisdictions that we've started behind – because the regulators are so progressive in New Zealand."
Being allowed to access the resource of local strains is important because globally the emerging medicinal cannabis business is about breeding plants for attributes. A plant that produces the right cannabinoids in the right ratios is potentially a very valuable one. And some of that value may pass to the people who have developed them over years.
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