An Okanagan company is the first research and development cannabis facility in the valley to receive a Health Canada licence.

Valens Agritech now holds a controlled drugs and substance dealers licence and operates from a 17,000-square-foot, high-security building that also houses Supra THC, a Health Canada-licensed cannabis testing lab.

“The thing we are adding that others don't have is a scientific traceability and ability to process things in a better way,” said Dr. Rob O’Brien, president and chief science officer.

“Valens is going to bring a proprietary process to produce oils without the use of solvents that are 100 per cent cannabis, they are also bringing traceability to this product

“Someone gets a product at the end, and they can see where it was grown, what testing was done to verify it was safe and what the potency is. We will also incorporate in our process RFID tags,” he said.

CEO Tyler Robson says Valens will create oils, culinary oils, sports recovery drinks, gums and bars.

The licence allows the company to take raw materials, repackage them or reformulate them and make medicines.

“There is a tsunami of activity in the cannabis sector coming,” said O’Brien. “We want to minimize the social negative impacts to maximize the positive.”

Just over 4,800 plants can be grown in the building at one time, and a large vault surrounded by a protective cave can store just over $6 million worth of product.

“This is the type of security you need for any high-level, controlled substance storage, we just over did it,” he said. “We built this to the highest level possible because we wanted to exceed the limits, not just meet them.”