Medifarm, a Queensland, Australia-based company, is the first to be issued a license to legally cultivate and produce medical cannabis in the state, the Brisbane Times reports. The company plans to supply 5,000 customers by early 2018.
Adam Benjamin, director of Medifarm, said they will be using products imported from Israel as a “stopgap measure until local production comes online.” He called the 5,000 patient estimate “conservative.”
“Through doctors in Australia, any patient who can be prescribed this will potentially be able to access these products,” he said in the report.
Benjamin explained that due to security reasons he could not disclose the exact location of the operation and worked with emergency services, police, and military advisors to ensure the site’s security.
“The idea that people will know where it is, they won’t, and if they do they won’t get in,” he said.
Queensland passed its medical cannabis legislation last October which took effect last month. Under the rules, specialist doctors, or medical practitioners who apply with the Therapeutic Goods Administration can prescribe cannabis to patients with severe chronic medical conditions. Plans allowing medical cannabis cultivation and production are ongoing in the Australian Capital Territory. New South Wales’ medical cannabis regime took effect last August.