The marijuana industry is coming to the rescue of Smith Falls, Ontario, an old factory town that is experiencing an unlikely renaissance now that Canopy Growth Corp., Canada’s largest publicly-traded cannabis producer, has become the town’s largest private-sector employer.
This summer, Canada will become the second country after Uruguay to legalize marijuana at the federal level, which has driven a boom in the local cannabis industry, according to Bloomberg.
Smiths Falls, Ontario - population 8,885 - is seeing a revival of fortunes since medical marijuana producer Tweed Inc. set up shop four years ago in an abandoned Hershey Co. chocolate factory. The company, since renamed Canopy Growth Corp., has become the world’s largest publicly traded cannabis producer and is the town’s largest private-sector employer.
For Smith Falls, Canopy’s arrival heralded a boom in younger people moving to the town, located about 75 kilometers (47 miles) southwest of Ottawa. There are sometimes bidding wars on homes. New businesses are arriving. And commercial property is seeing renewed interest. Canopy, formerly known as Tweed Inc., took over an old Hershey factory to build a giant growing operation for medical marijuana. How’s that for symbolism?
We’re recognized as the pot capital of Canada - and we’re proud of that, Mayor Shawn Pankow said in an interview from the town hall, a two-story brick building erected in 1859 on the main street. The local economy is certainly far better today than it was before Tweed came to town.
We’re seeing positive impacts really across the economy, said Pankow, 52, who also runs a financial advisory firm. People are recognizing that Smiths Falls is a community that’s on the upswing.
This represents a dramatic shift from just a decade ago, when Smiths Falls faced an industry exodus with the shutdown of a Stanley Tools Manufacturing facility and the shuttering of the Hershey plant that Canopy now occupies. This was followed months later by the closure of the Rideau Regional Center for the developmentally disabled. The closures affected more than 1,500 people - one-fifth of the town’s population.
Canopy has since restored 360 of those jobs, creating a well-educated workforce that runs the administration, research, growing operations, packaging and shipping from the facility that still has signage and other remnants of its chocolate past. Construction crews can be heard hammering away.
Smiths Falls has faced ebbs and flows of industry throughout its history.
Nearly 200 years ago, crews came to build the Rideau Canal connecting Ottawa with Kingston. Decades later, the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived to provide a rail connection to the outside world.
But during the late twentieth century, the town experienced a wave of factory closings that devastated the local economy.
Frost & Wood Co., which began making farming equipment in 1846, evolved into a munitions factory during the Second World War that once employed 1,200 people before it closed in 1955. Coca-Cola Co. bottler Rideau Beverages was around until the 1970s.
RCA Victor, which came to town in 1954, employed 350 people at its height before leaving in 1978.
Hershey came in 1963 and within 25 years had 750 workers and a bustling plant that drew thousands of visitors. At one point, the town’s water tower boasted an image of a Hershey bar and the slogan “Chocolate Capital of Ontario.”
Four Degrees Brewing Co. recently opened. European canal boat operator Le Boat has occupied an 1840s-era Lockmaster’s House on the waterway that bisects town. It’s ramping up plans to bring 16 rental boats next summer for tourists to cruise the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Linton, whose company has soared to a market value of more than C$4 billion ($3.1 billion), sees room to further improve Smiths Falls. He wants to expand a retail area at his plant to draw visitors - akin to days when busloads of tourists toured Hershey’s and bought broken chocolate bars on the cheap. Beyond that, he’d like to see more restaurants, meeting places and a hotel to make it a destination spot.
“What the town lacks is a really great place for people to actually stay,” Linton said.
Aside from the hubbub over weed, Smiths Falls has another claim to fame: It’s the hometown of Brooke Henderson, the 20-year-old golfer who ranks sixth in earnings this year on the Ladies Professional Golf Association circuit.
Comments
So, ask yourself a few key questions. Is legalizing Cannabis going to make this a better country or a worse one? Would you want to live in a neighbourhood filled with people who regularly smoke Cannabis? Would you want your kids regularly smoking pot? Now is the time to think about it because although it's easy to thoughtlessly legalize a drug like Cannabis, when things go predictably wrong down the road, it will be a lot harder to put the genie back in the bottle than people seem to think.
I guess throwing people in prison for possession of a plant makes even more sense.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
Yeah that's stupid. Shoot them on the spot. Any dumb fag who can't see THC is the most destructive drug of society needs to be shot also
In reply to I guess throwing people in… by Pure Evil
Yeah that's stupid. Shoot them on the spot. Any dumb fag who can't see THC is the most destructive drug of society needs to be shot also
In reply to I guess throwing people in… by Pure Evil
"Would you want to live in a neighbourhood filled with people who regularly smoke Cannabis?"
What makes you think you don't already?
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
Is it any worse than being surrounded by alcoholics?
In reply to "Would you want to live in a… by OnErrorResumeNext
Really good point.. no fixing mentally ill people.. my thoughts are let em get drunk if they want and piss themselves who cares? I don't, my big gripe is the recovery industry which is a scam or a cleanup of drunks to repeat and support that industry at taxpayer expense.
In reply to Is it any worse than being… by Pure Evil
Britbobby go jump off the Rock of Gibraltar....
In reply to Really good point.. no… by Dilluminati
Dude. Yo need to find something to do to mellow out some...
In reply to Britbobby go jump off the… by BurningFuld
Edit: Yo = You.
The edit feature is much appreciated.
In reply to Dude. Yo need to find… by Gap Admirer
Doubt if many pot smokers join into the Recover industry.
In reply to Really good point.. no… by Dilluminati
^THIS^
In reply to "Would you want to live in a… by OnErrorResumeNext
"So, ask yourself a few key questions. Is legalizing alcohol going to make this a better country or..."
Yeah, prohibition works great!
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
I don't think it should be criminalized, however I don't also think it is something I want brain surgeons doing or other professionals. I think it is a drug that the lower class should be allowed to consume as robotics and AI make them less important to society. But criminalizing people for doing the drug doesn't make sense, if it were legalized tomorrow I wouldn't smoke it. Might as well legalize other narcotics as well, but with this caveat: no bailing out the addicts. I'd imagine between some collective purchasing of drugs for medicare and medicaid, dropping the war on drugs, stop footing the bill for the addict, stop incarcerating people for drugs we would have essentially the SOMA underclass and the rest of society.
I'm tired of arguing with, wrestling with, or coercing people to do things even if it is dumb and harmful. Let me get stoned, fine with me. But let it be a choice and no bailouts for the bad decisions.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
Relatives and I have known more than a few surgeons socially. We assure you, they drink and smoke, same as other people.
I knew brain surgeons who rode motorcycles, to give you some idea of how 'brain surgeon' != 'mental giant'.
In reply to I don't think it should be… by Dilluminati
Those brain surgeons called them 'donor cycles', so were fully aware of the risks. Surgeons general come from the thrill seeker end of the spectrum of personalities.
In reply to Relatives and I have known… by lew1024
Because prescription drugs never got no one high, and doctors never ever abused no prescription drugs. And Marinol is not a prescription drug that's almost pure THC, not no how. And them morphine is for the upper class folk. No one in Seattle, Portland, Boston, Beverly Hills ever smoke the marijuana! They just take the morphine like the brain surgeons! It safe!
In reply to I don't think it should be… by Dilluminati
Getting ed up never dies. Nobody has to sell drugs, they sell themselves. Pot is going to be smoked, beer will be drunk, and the damns you gave will be inconsequential.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
Getting ed up never dies. Nobody has to sell drugs, they sell themselves. Pot is going to be smoked, beer will be drunk, and the damns you gave will be inconsequential.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
a mass majority of people have already been smoking...Just because it is legal doesnt mean people will do it...For instance, if they made heroin legal, which I wish they would do, I would not do heroin because its legal..Marijuana has been around in mass since I was 16, which was 45 years ago..no deaths, no crazy people, and about the worst thing they will do is steal donuts from 7/11. I grew 4 plants this year and they are as good as the dispensary, but I dont charge massive amounts per gram to sell it. Its for personal use, barter, or giving away. I, as well as many others can get drugs off the street, including heroin, coke etc anytime...If you do not like marijuana, or other drugs, then support the end of the CIA, not the illegalization of marijuana. Other countries have legalized all drugs and it has been an overwhelming success..
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
How do you put the genie back in the bottle?
Cannabis shops are opening all over Toronto in readiness for legalization. An article said that Toronto cops former and current, former premier of Ontario Ernie Eves are big investors in the pot industry. So it won't be the Hell's Angels running it. My sister who lives in small town Ontario is invested in the pot business.
I have much money in the bank, too lazy to invest and don't know how. But I won't invest in pot as I see it as evil. I hate the stuff. I've smoked it before. Makes me paranoid and aware of every pain in my body.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
There are now several dozen major strains and literally 1000s of stable varieties.
Cannabis fixes pain. Go try the CBD strains if you have pain, experiment with crosses with other strains. I rarely hear of people getting paranoid under cannabis's really benign influence.
In reply to How do you put the genie… by shadow54
Dear MR reefer madness. When u actually get educated on weed come on back and tell what a fucking idiot u were for writing this. Have a bs in engineering and mba both from top 5 schools own ( not run) a $5m a year business. I smoked up to 30 yr and recently took it back up INSTEAD of alcohol which I’m finding gives me a worse and worse hangovers. Zero effect on me mentally and physically unlike alcohol. The FDA is about to approve a cbd drug. Oh god a drug from marijuana. Really. Only 15,000 ppl die a year from alcohol related auto accidents. Thank u church lady
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
I live in Canada and have some friends in Smith Falls. I personally know tons of people who smoke marijuana, including MDs, PhDs, and regular folks. And a lot of these people have been doing it for years. Personally, I don`t touch the stuff. I tried it and I don`t like it. I think that the country is going to be changed forever. People will show up stoned to work, to drive and will live their entire lives stoned. I don`t think it`s as harmless as people think. For example, it causes psychosis in teenagers who smoke a lot. I think it`s ridiculous to prosecute people for smoking, but something has to be done to stop this downward slide of society.
The worse thing is does is that when people are stoned, they act kind of like they are drunk - they don`t understand the way other people are seeing them. And, this causes a lot, a lot, of marital discord and child abuse. People aren`t just chill and relaxed the way hippies make you think. People are disinhibited and this is the thing that will make society disintegrate.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
Do I not recall more than a few studies showing that policing costs go down when cannabis is freely available? Which implies a lessening of discord in 'the lower social orders'.
You are mis-informed, cannabis has not been shown to 'cause' anything because clinical trials using the product have not been done. What you have read are one of the possible interpretations of epidemiological studies, correlational data.
Those are normally done by psychiatrists, an interested party, and so of course the studies are biased, humans being what we are. Replication rates for clinical trails are about 30%, replication rates for psychiatric studies are much lower, although some of that must be due to the rapidly changing terminology defined in the ever-changing DSM.
I.e., not hard science.
In reply to I live in Canada and have… by mishimishi
actually, your "teenager use causes psychosis" comment comes from all the MSM universities owned by the pharma industry...Our society is going downhill because of our representatives who are greedy and untruthful..psychosis comes fro the education system and the pharma drugs...And dont even get me started on vaccines..I have never had contact with a teen who has psychosis from smoking pot...have you? or do you simply believe everything you read from liberal/pharma owned universities? Have you seen videos of the liberals being asked simple questions? they go bezeerk, and they dont smoke pot..
In reply to I live in Canada and have… by mishimishi
As a Canadian, I have mixed emotions about the whole pot situation.
First and foremost, the Government see's yet another vise-tax. The hypocrisy of it is amusing. Smoking cigarette's is known to cause multiple types of Cancer, and the Government has been running ad campaigns for years to stop people from smoking. Non-smokers are healthier and cost less in out "Socialist Medical System" (Free, yet we pay Federal tax every two weeks on our pay check....So....NO, ITS NOT FREE). Yet Pot is the new Cash Cow.
Anything the Government can tax, they will. Period.
The other situation, is that it will rob the mob and bike gangs of their income, which is a good thing. There is the rub. Cut down on 15 year olds selling pot on the corner and biker gangs beating people up and blowing up buildings over the pot turf, while taking in tax dollars that might pay for something the majority wants.
It's an interesting situation that is been implemented WAY to quickly, just because JT (Justin Trudeau. AKA "the shiny pony") wanted to be "COOL" during the last election and will put it through no matter what. Reason be damned. I am sure we as Canadian's will now be inundated with all the pot heads from around the world looking to become Canadian citizens. Yippy!
Don't get me wrong. I am not a prude and did smoke some pot at parties 30 years ago, but it made me feel stupid for a couple days afterward and I had no ambition until it was out of my system. That is not the kind of people we need in a Socialist Society. We have way to many of them already.
I guess time will tell.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
25 percent of your neighbors probably smoke cannabis at least once a week already. But they obviously won't tell you. And anyone with a Canadian address can already order "illegal" cannabis anytime they wany. America is like Iran compared to Canada when it comes to cannabis. Plus do you realize how many US states alteady have recreational cannabis, and how many will next year? And that anyone in CA can get a medical card any time they want?
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
"predictably wrong down the road"
Please provide details.
Domestic violence will go down.
Impaired driving accidents will also probably go down.
Vandalism by youth will probably go down except the stealing of ones garden plants.
People will be more relaxed and a lot of good thought will be done.
People will perhaps be better slaves for the elite.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
So, ask yourself a few key questions. Is legalizing Cannabis going to make this a better country or a worse one? Would you want to live in a neighbourhood filled with people who regularly smoke Cannabis? Would you want your kids regularly smoking pot? Now is the time to think about it because although it's easy to thoughtlessly legalize a drug like Cannabis, when things go predictably wrong down the road, it will be a lot harder to put the genie back in the bottle than people seem to think.
yes, yes and straw man.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
I live in a state that has legalized cannabis and grows a great deal for export to other states, despite state and federal regulations against that.
It has been ever-more everywhere for as long as I have lived here, legalization just made it cheaper for anyone who wanted it, and low-risk enough that now everyone tries it. Some like it, some don't, it crosses generations. I see a lot of older people vaping, it is good for pain.
We get ads for $100 ounces, 15 years ago that would have been $1000 for the same grade. It will go much lower :
https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/08/14/prepare-for-big-weed/
In reply to yes, yes and straw man. by NoCamelCase
Smoking anything is bad for you. Edibles are the way to go. It's a plant.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
You people are tools. Go blow Sessions.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
You people are tools. Go blow Sessions.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
You people are tools. Go blow Sessions.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
You people are tools. Go blow Sessions.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
You people are tools. Go blow Sessions.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
You people are tools. Go blow Sessions.
In reply to So, ask yourself a few key… by BritBob
Sounds like a great place for a new Trump resort
Given the amount of businesses and industries that have left Smith Falls in the past, I'm wondering when this bubble will burst too.
Mr Mayor, the financial guy, is probably running a nice little pump and dump on the local real estate. I'm sure the bond underwriters have been fast at work. So have the civil servants with new contracts and pension plans in hand (or however that works up there).
Because it all is going to go up! up! up!
Forever.....
It's a lovely small town that needs a new industry.
In reply to Given the amount of… by rockstone
I don't understand the "pot industry". As a teenager in the early 1970s we used to plant seeds from bags of "Columbian" or "Commercial" pot and harvest the plants. You'd easily get a pound of smoke from one plant. If you shared a cigarette-sized joint between two people you got baked. Share another and you'd get REALLY baked. It was super easy to grow. We called this first-generation homegrown "Wisco" (I'm from Wisconsin) and it was the staple among both wake-and-bake stoners and casual recreational users like me.
Why do people spend big money on exotic super-potent weed that gets you stoned in one bonger? Why not just grow your own less potent (but FREE) weed? I know what I'd do if I were still partaking of the herb, and it wouldn't involve paying for weed or taxes.
Exotic super-potent weed isn't the key anymore. Dabs! The cook who makes the Shatter (concentrate) is key.
In reply to I don't understand the "pot… by itstippy
Same in Ohio. Plant the seeds in the spring down at the end of cornfields where the tilling didn't continue, but sun, water and fertilizer runoff. Tell your friends where to go pick it in the fall.
My relatives tell of taking a van out to the harvest and filling it with leaf bags of cannabis from one grow on some farmer's fields. Yes, you would get baked on a joint.
I think the seeds are better, so they will be more potent now. Indoor is better to smoke, but I doubt there is any diff in the concentrates or edibles. Concentrates and edibles are the way to go, a cookie to start the day, and vaping to keep it topped up.
I have friends who never come down if they can help it. They live normal lives, pain-free as they can be, testify it is a good alternative to opiods. An old person's drug, in their view, the kind every decent nursing home should provide.
In reply to I don't understand the "pot… by itstippy
most kids quit after a few joints ,especially when its legal, no forbidden fruit anymore.
Don't think people will start smoking in the streets en mass.
Less criminals , more money for community.
Just wait until hemp becomes legal. Then you will see a real home grown economy. It will be robust too. And talk about stable. Logistically tight is a real advantage.
true story. i was friends with twin dudes from smith falls. both dead. we called them the smothers brothers. we got pretty high and drunk.
Short these fools, those who can.
After the government gets it' $1 a gram and these idiots add their whatever, the price will be almost double what most people pay now. I expect most will stay with their current suppliers and this whole scam really will fail as only fools will buy from dispensaries.
Many of my pot head contemporaries won't ever step foot into a dispensary, for many reasons. Maybe out of pure curiosity or desperation, they might enter once.
My generation (40-60) has wayyyyy too many connections to shop dispensaries. It's a demo that the biz will have a tough time cracking becauseit's cheaper, the gov gets stiffed, and way more convenient to access trusted friends.
In reply to Short these fools, those… by PenGun
Pagination