Ontario-based Cannabis company, CannTrust, has announced that it plans to destroy 77 million Canadian dollars worth of Hemp. The move is an attempt to reclaim its license from the Canadian government.
CannTrust received a Notice of License Suspension from Health Canada after the company was found to be carrying out unlicensed cultivation. A whistleblower alerted Health Canada to the situation in July.
However, CannTrust didn’t receive the Notice of License Suspension until September. The suspension constituted a partial suspension of CannTrust’s license for standard cultivation. The company also received a full suspension of its license for standard processing, medical sales, and research.
According to a press release, its board “has determined that it is necessary to destroy approximately CA$12 million of biological assets and approximately CA$65 million worth of inventory that was not authorised by CannTrust’s license.”
The stock set to be destroyed includes product returned by customers, distributors and retailers following the license suspensions.
CannTrust hopes that the action will allow the company to “free up” capacity to implement remediation measures. The Canadian Cannabis company also hopes that this will allow them to store product that has been grown and processed in accordance with their licenses.
Interim CEO of CannTrust, Robert Marcovitch, said in a statement.
“Our goal is to meet and exceed Health Canada’s regulatory standard, and to rebuild the trust and confidence of our primary regulator, investors, patients, and customers”.
Following the scandal, the company fired its former CEO, Peter Aceto. The company President was also forced to resign.
In July, Health Canada found that the company was growing Cannabis plants in unlicensed growing rooms. In addition, in mid-August, the regulatory body found that five rooms had been converted into unregulated storage rooms.
CannTrust has announced that it will provide a detailed remediation plan to Health Canada by 21st October 2019.
