Akwesasne medical marijuana facility gets Health Canada licence

In this supplied photo, Seven Leaf President Lewis Mitchell stands in a growing room at the firm’s production facility in Akwesasne on Cornwall Island. (CNW Group via Newswatch Group)

AKWESASNE – An Akwesasne medical marijuana facility is now licenced by Health Canada.

The company made the announcement today (Thursday), charting new territory in Canada as the country’s first licenced producer owned and operated by Aboriginals.

Seven Leaf on Cornwall Island is led by a team with experience in law, horticulture, business administration and pharmaceuticals. The plant, when fully built, will be 84,000 square feet.

Lewis Mitchell is the company president.

Seven Leaf says it’s ready for “rapid expansion” in the next two years and will complete its next phase of hiring within six months.

Seven Leaf expects have 75 people on the payroll by the time its up to full operations in the fall next year. The company has already employed many local people in the construction trades who built the facility.

Grand Chief Abram Benedict says the band council is looking forward to the “positive contribution Seven Leaf will have to Akwesasne’s economy.”