City staff in Merritt say there has been a ton of interest from developers looking to grow or sell cannabis.

Planning and development services manager Mark Brodrick says the weather, location and price of land has made Merritt an attractive landing spot for cannabis.

“We’ve had an awful lot of inquiries. I haven’t counted the total number, but both between the growing aspect and also the retail, in all sincerity there’s been whole days when all we’ve done is answer questions about cannabis retail and cannabis growing,” Brodrick says.

“I think, what they realize, in a sense land is relatively cheap in comparison to other locations. And it’s a central location, so you’re not that far from the Lower Mainland. You’re fairly close to airports, definitely on major highway corridors. So they see it as a good location… If you look at the (Official Community Plan), it talks about trying to basically double the population of Merritt. It’s pro-growth, pro-development, so that’s part of it as well.”

Formally, there are at least two producers looking to build cannabis grow-ops in the city and and at least two cannabis retailers planning to set up shop. A third producer is proposing to build a craft cannabis “campus” within city limits as well.

(Photo: CannWest)