This article is reposted from Leafly.
September 27, 2019
If you grew up in or around Ottawa in the 1980s, you’ll remember Smiths Falls as a tourism destination—back when the Hershey Company’s chocolate factory was running.
Most kids visited the factory at least once growing up with grandparents or on a school field trip, and many still remember it for the bin of broken chocolate at the end of it, which you could buy by the bagful at diabetically low prices.
Canopy Growth’s decision to base itself in that old Hershey factory did wonders for the economy of Smiths Falls, an hour’s drive southwest of Ottawa, with a population of about 9,000.
But one thing it didn’t do was spark tourist interest—principally because Health Canada frowns on LPs selling broken buds by the bagful, along with many other practices that goose tourism business.
Smiths Falls itself set out this week to change that, presenting its Cannabis Tourism Strategy to town council with the aim of “[establishing] Smiths Falls as the premiere cannabis tourism destination in Canada.”