CANNABIS PROCESSING LICENCES

Health Canada’s Cannabis Act, 2018, and Cannabis Regulations, 2018, regulates the control and production of cannabis. This framework enforces regulatory compliance for Canada’s medical and recreational cannabis industries.

Processing focuses on the manufacturing, packaging, and labelling of cannabis products. An Online Sales Licence can be combined with a Processing Class Licence to sell to other Licenced Holders and other intra-industry operations.

There are two classes of Cannabis Processing Licences.

The Cannabis Act, 2018, requires that Health Canada’s Minister of Health receives and considers any application filed for Commercial Cannabis Licence, including the Cultivation Class. There are two Classes of Cannabis Cultivation Licences.

Standard Processing Licence

This Licence Class applies to individuals looking to become large-scale manufacturers of cannabis products in Canada. It allows them to process a variety of cannabis products, legally package and label cannabis products for direct-to-consumer sales and sell to authorized distributors and other intra-industry operations.

Micro-processing Licence

This Licence Class authorizes the same with a restriction of processing no more than 600 kilograms of dried cannabis (or equivalent) per year.

This Licence Class is subject to additional requirements proposed by Health Canada.

A Processing Class Licence would allow an individual or corporation to:

Beverages
Oils
Cannabis Resin
Oral Sprays
Capsules
Other Intermediary Products
Edibles
Synthesizing Phytocannabinoids
Extracts
Topicals
Hash
Other Authorized Products

A Processing Class licence would allow for supplemental or associated activities such as:

Possession
Storage
Transportation
Destruction
Sales to other Licenced Holders
‍

Edibles and topicals:

The manufacturing of these cannabis product types is a different activity from the typical Processor who manufactures extracts.

There are additional requirements and restrictions for the manufacturing of edibles and topicals. For example, you may process cannabis and food products on the same site (property). However, the production, packaging, labelling, and storage of cannabis and the production, packaging, and labelling of food products must be conducted in separate buildings. This requirement also applies to other cannabis product types.

The Cannabis Regulations, 2018, require any cannabis production (cultivation or extraction) to occur in a separate building from any food or ingredient production. This requirement is a crucial strategy to mitigate against the food safety and public health concerns associated with multi-product manufacturing facilities and mitigate against the risks of cross-contamination between ingredients and products and the increased risk of mislabelling and product mix-ups.

The regulations intend to assure Canadians, Canada’s international trade partners, and importers of Canadian food products that Licenced Holder took all possible measures to reduce the risk of cross-contamination of Canadian food products with cannabis. Licenced Holders are permitted to sell to other intra-industry operations, authorized distributors, and other Licenced Holders.

Separate authorizations will be required to sell recreational cannabis products directly to the general public.

All applications for Processing Licences are reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Health. The Ministry of Health is also responsible for overseeing licence suspensions, revocations, renewals, restrictions, amendments, and the right to deny applications.

The Cannabis Act, 2018, allows applicants to submit a single application for various Licence Classes and Subclasses, such as Cultivation.

GrowLegally will work with your company from Seed to Success, help you choose the licence that is right for your company while developing a strategic growth strategy!

Apply Now! Get licenced and Join our Global Cannabis Inter-Industry Ecosystem!
‍