PEI

Take a look inside this P.E.I. cannabis company as it prepares for legalization

With a week until recreational cannabis becomes legal on Oct. 17, one P.E.I. supplier is scrambling to get its products ready for stores.

Figr will provide cannabis products to P.E.I. and Nova Scotia

The company is working with a consultant to find better packaging. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

With a week until recreational cannabis becomes legal on Oct. 17, one P.E.I. supplier is scrambling to get its products ready for stores. 

CEO Edwin Jewell holds a package of Figr cannabis oil from the Figr recreational cannabis division which is different from its Canada’s Island Garden range of medicinal cannabis. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

The products are being packaged and readied for shipping to stores to be available for customers waiting to make purchases legally.

Cannabis buds at Figr, the recreational division of Canada's Island Garden. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

Canada's Island Garden has been growing and selling medicinal marijuana to Canadians for two years. The company now has a new recreational division and brand called Figr. They have agreements with P.E.I. and Nova Scotia to sell their products in those provinces. 

Workers package seven gram packages of Figr No17. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

Chief executive officer Edwin Jewell said the company's three strands of cannabis are stockpiled and ready to go.

Getting it all packaged has them scrambling to meet this first deadline. 

Pre-rolled joints are ready for packaging. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

"Because it's the first time for us using all this packaging, it's having that available, not being held up with trucks, or with customs, and just having the product here. None of it's been here any sooner than it needed to be  Some of it's arriving at the last minute."

FIGR cannabis plants are used to produce a number of products that will be sold in P.E.I. and Nova Scotia when recreational cannabis becomes legal on Oct. 17. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

Jewell said the company hasn't committed to supplying any more cannabis than it's certain it can produce even if the demand is there. 

Cannabis buds stored for packaging. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

​Figr has promised 1,000 kilograms to Island stores over the next year and about the same to Nova Scotia. 

The facility is expanding with a new greenhouse and warehouse. Expected to be complete in 2019, it will be able to produce 30 times the amount of cannabis and is expected to add 200 more staff. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

"We haven't reached out too far just yet, because we know that the amount of cannabis we have to offer for sale will look after P.E.I. and Nova Scotia. We're just making sure we get them looked after first before we go further."

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With files from Steve Bruce