Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX: ACB) (OTCQB: ACBFF) (Frankfurt: 21P; WKN: A1C4WM) is pleased to provide the following operational update.

Aurora Vie Sales License

On June 29, 2018, eight months after receiving its cultivation license, the Aurora Vie production facility in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, has been granted its Health Canada sales license. The facility, now in full commercial operation, is on target to produce at a rate of 4,000 kg per year of high-quality cannabis by October 2018. Multiple harvests have been completed to date.

Modifications of the facility required for softgel manufacturing are materially complete. The Company’s strategic partner, Capcium, is now installing equipment to commence high-volume production of cannabis softgels, a premium market segment.

Aurora Sky Completes First Harvest

Located at Edmonton International Airport, Aurora Sky, the world’s most technologically advanced cannabis production facility, continues to progress on track towards full operation in late summer. The first harvest was completed on June 28, 2018, with a second harvest planned within the next two weeks. Upon completion of the second harvest, the Company will request a Health Canada inspection towards receiving a sales license for the facility.

Installation of most automation systems, as well as irrigation and climate control is complete, and the facility’s critical systems are being commissioned. The Company anticipates planting of all bays in the coming months, ensuring ample dried flower and extracted product supply in advance of consumer legalization in October, 2018, with the facility ramping up to full capacity of more than 8,000 kg each month by the beginning of 2019. Consequently, the Company expects a dramatic increase in product availability across all three market segments: Canadian medical; Canadian adult consumer use; and international medical.

With a total footprint exceeding 800,000 sq. ft., Aurora Sky is expected to produce more than 100,000 kg per year of high-quality cannabis.

Capsules Licenses Granted

Aurora is poised to enter new high value-added, high margin segments of the medical and consumer markets. CanniMed has received Health Canada approval to commence sales of CanniMed Capsules, a line of vegan capsules, the first of which – CanniMed Capsules 3:3 – will be available in August, 2018. Each capsule contains a balanced dose of THC and CBD. A high CBD capsule is also under development. Capsules as a delivery mechanism are highly valued for their precision dosing.

In addition, Aurora has received its Health Canada license for the production of encapsulated oil for its Mountain facility. The Company will be producing unique, integral hard shells for the medical markets, as well as for the adult consumer use market, once legalized.

Construction Well Underway at Aurora Sun

Ground has been broken for construction of the Aurora Sun production facility in Medicine Hat, Alberta, known as the “Sunniest City in Canada”. Excavation is 75% complete. The considerable experience gained through the construction of Aurora Sky, the acquisition of Larssen Ltd. and the establishment of facility design and engineering division Aurora Larssen Projects Inc. (“ALPS”), as well as the business-friendly climate in Medicine Hat are anticipated to expedite completion of the Aurora Sun project.

Aurora Sun, the second of the Company’s EU GMP compliant high technology “Sky Class” facilities with precision environmental controls and a high degree of automation, is currently slated to be 50% larger than Aurora Sky, at 1.2 million sq. ft., and to produce more than 150,000 kg of high-quality cannabis per year.

CanniMed Integration Complete

The integration of CanniMed Therapeutics into Aurora has now been successfully completed, within the targeted 90 day period, combining Aurora’s execution and agility with CanniMed’s strong medical brand, assets and exceptionally experienced team of scientists and operational cannabis professionals. The implementation program developed for CanniMed will support the integration of future acquisitions. Financial and fiscal synergies, predominantly in supply chain management, HR and IT, have also been realized.

The operational teams have fully completed their technical and process review, and production synergies are being realized. The Company anticipates that by bringing CanniMed’s cultivation processes in line with the Aurora Standard, the production capacity within the current footprint will increase significantly over the coming quarters. Similarly, the integration team is implementing enhancements to the extraction operations at CanniMed, which, management expects will increase oil production substantially.

The integration process has also enabled the Company to leverage CanniMed’s currently unused licensed space to support the development and delivery of new product forms in addition to the recently announced launch of a Topical cream and the CanniMed Capsules. The integrated science team is continuing to progress on existing CanniMed initiatives, as well is establishing new projects, leveraging CanniMed’s considerable research and science capabilities.

CanniMed is now integrated into Aurora’s international sales and distribution channels. Additional opportunities to increase Aurora’s and CanniMed’s international reach are being pursued, such as through CanniMed’s relationships in South Africa, the Cayman Islands, and Australia. CanniMed continues to ship oils to both of the latter jurisdictions. These shipments are expected to show continued growth in line with demand in these markets and as additional oil production capacity comes online.

Strengthening the Company’s medical brand recognition to support further growth in the international medical cannabis markets is being pursued through the continuation of various clinical trials. This program is also anticipated to yield marketable IP.

About Aurora

Headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, with funded capacity in excess of 430,000 kg per year and operations across Canada and in Europe, Aurora is one of the world’s largest cannabis companies. The Company is vertically integrated and horizontally diversified across every key segment of the value chain, from facility design and engineering, to cannabis breeding and genetics research, cannabis and hemp production, extraction and high value-add product development, home cultivation and wholesale and retail distribution.

Highly differentiated from its peers, Aurora has established a uniquely advanced, consistent and efficient production strategy, based on purpose-built facilities that integrate leading-edge technologies across all processes. Intended to be replicable and scalable globally, these production facilities are designed to produce cannabis on a massive scale, with high flower quality, industry-leading yields, and ultra-low per gram production costs. Each of the Company’s facilities is built to meet European Union (EU) GMP standards, and both its first production facility and its wholly owned European medical cannabis distributor Pedanios have achieved that level of certification.

In addition to its rapid organic growth and strategic M&A, which to date includes nine companies acquired, Aurora is distinguished by its reputation as a partner of choice in the cannabis sector, having invested in and established strategic partnerships with a range of leading innovators, including: The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (TSX: TGOD), Radient Technologies Inc. (TSXV: RTI), Hempco Food and Fiber Inc. (TSXV: HEMP), Cann Group Ltd. (ASX: CAN), Micron Waste Technologies Inc. (CSE: MWM), Choom Holdings Inc. (CSE: CHOO), Namaste Technologies Inc. (TSXV: N), and Alcanna Inc. (TSX: CLIQ).

Aurora’s Common Shares trade on the TSX under the symbol “ACB”, and are a constituent of the S&P/TSX Composite Index.

For more information about Aurora, please visit our investor website https://investor.auroramj.com.

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WeedMD Inc. (TSX-V:WMD) (OTC:WDDMF) (FSE:4WE), a federally-licensed producer and distributor of medical cannabis, is pleased to announce that the Company has appointed Dr. Jonas Vanderzwan as Medical Director and Chair of its Clinical Advisory Board.

July 2, 2018 – PRESS RELEASE – International precision agriculture provider AgriTask has adapted its novel Agri-platform for use by medical cannabis growers who, unlike other farmers, face a unique regulatory environment. Already in wide use for other crops, the company modified the platform specifically to meet the stringent IMC-GAP regulations for growing medical cannabis.

“Our challenge was to quickly adapt our platform that has been so successful with soybeans, coffee, cotton, various vegetables and in orchards and forestry to a crop that is highly regulated,” says Israel Fraier, chairman and CEO of AgriTask. He adds that “the platform’s flexibility allowed us to take advantage of experience in Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Israel and develop a platform that meets the strictest regulations and at the same time improve productivity and increase yields.”

The AgriTask platform integrates various data sources into one comprehensive, easy-to-use system, which serves all management levels. The company’s proprietary app allows the user to benefit from a full range of integrated inputs including satellite and UAV image layers and indexes, automatic climate models, digitalization of field data based on individual protocols, and integrating machinery and third-party sensor data. This permits users to easily detect problems in the growing cycle, define a plan and control the entire process from beginning to end.

“AgriTask’s arrival on the scene was perfectly timed for us and has helped in a whole array of tasks from pest surveys to diseases, and from ongoing operations to costs to names just a few,” says Getulio Ferreira, director of planning and production at Girassol Agricola, one of the biggest seed producing companies in Brazil. He adds that the use of AgriTask’s platform “has enabled us to generate more accurate and reliable data for fast and assertive decision making.” In addition, Ferreira notes the platform enabled Girassol Agricola to take the technological era in the field one step further by totally eliminating the use of paper.

The company has taken its highly successful platform used in a full range of crops one step further to meet the stringent regulatory environment facing medical cannabis growers. The upgrading gives the growers the necessary tools to monitor and document every aspect of the process from the mother plant, to post-harvest processing and shipment reports. This includes tracking and documenting of all activities from pest monitoring, to waste and death of plants, mobility of plants at a specific facility, quantities harvested and quality assessment. Data can be entered into the system by farm workers and managers through the proprietary mobile application developed by AgriTask for medical cannabis growers or automatically via integration to alternative systems.

After harvesting, each batch receives a unique ID, which includes details from the mother plant stages, clones taken, the growth cycle, post-harvest, weight, packaging and all relevant laboratory test results. The ID is prepared in accordance with Israeli Health Ministry regulations, which are currently the most stringent in the world for medical cannabis.

This kind of documentation is a crucial part of the regulatory process that growers are facing in the US and Israel as well as other countries in this relatively new segment in agriculture. As a drug, the regulations ensure that the final product meets the stringent quality level for use by patients. No less important is to prevent any seepage of medical cannabis into the non-medical market.

Equally as important for growers are productivity and yields. The AgriTask platform gives growers up to the minute reports that allow real time assessments regarding the state of their batches and risks and immediate action on critical issues ranging from fertilizer, pest and disease treatment, lighting and irrigation to name just a few.

The system’s capabilities raise the overall responsibility of the staff and facilitate data reporting in real time. The quick response to risks and events effecting the growing of medical cannabis enables the prevention of unnecessary chemical applications on the plants, minimizes batch mortality and produces a cleaner, higher quality product for medical use. The bottom line for the growers is higher yields with far lower inputs and fewer losses from regulation.

Gov. Phil Scott signed legislation earlier this year to allow adults to cultivate four mature plants and two immature plants in a secure location in their home, said Tom Little, co-chair of the Vermont Marijuana Commission, a study commission organized by the governor to analyze the pros and cons of what Vermont residents call “the home-grown legalization option.”

“Law enforcement is getting anxious about that—they believe they’re going to have increased law enforcement responsibilities for impaired driving,” Little told Cannabis Business Times. “Landlords are trying to figure out what the law says about whether they can prohibit production and consumption of marijuana in their apartments.”

With home cultivation taking effect, the Vermont Marijuana Commission will now turn its attention to studying the best way to tax and regulate adult-use cannabis in the state, which was approved through the state legislature and signed into law in January.

The commission’s report on adult-use legalization and sales is due by Dec. 15, Little said, adding that Scott has made it clear that he is not yet prepared to support a retail sales, tax and regulation model in the state.

“What he’s asked for in the December report is—assuming Vermont decision-makers are ready to make a decision about that, up or down—what should the Vermont version of that model look like that works best for Vermont,” Little said. “So, we’re looking at how other states have done that—Colorado, Washington, and now Massachusetts and others—to see what would be the best way to structure that kind of a legalization for a state like Vermont and is there anything we would want to do differently in Vermont based upon our legal system and our social culture and that sort of thing.”

Licensed medical cannabis businesses in the state, such as vertically integrated Champlain Valley Dispensary + Southern Vermont Wellness, are eagerly awaiting the launch of the adult-use market. “The hope is that come December, this commission will present its findings to the governor and the statehouse, and there’s some talk that maybe by February 2019, ‘tax [and] regulate’ would be presented and potentially passed by the statehouse,” said Shayne Lynn, Champlain Valley Dispensary + Southern Vermont Wellness’ CEO and executive director. “At that point, we’ll understand the dynamics.”

Champlain Valley Dispensary + Southern Vermont Wellness holds two of the five medical licenses in the state and has been licensed for about five years, Lynn says. The company will have four retail locations operational within the next 30 days, when it opens two additional locations.

“We’ve been lobbying to ensure that the medical program can survive and coexist with a tax [and] regulate model,” Lynn added. “One of the things that we try to really stress—not only to our regulators, but to our representatives—is making sure as tax [and] regulate potentially comes online that the definitions are the same, that there are not two separate laws that aren’t working together, so that there would be one set of statute—rules and regulations—that would hopefully cover both the medical and the tax [and] regulate.”

Lynn looks forward to the expansion of the cannabis community in Vermont as adult-use businesses join the handful of established medical operators.

“Our hope, though, is to participate, and we feel like we bring a lot of knowledge—obviously five years’ experience—to the marketplace, and we look forward to community, too,” he said. “We’re looking forward to a larger business community with tax [and] regulate who are having discussions and a voice in helping be a part of and basically operate this tax [and] regulate model.”

Scott will seek re-election this fall, and while some of his opponents may be more pro-legalization than he is, Little said that Vermonters are probably waiting to see how home cultivation plays out before turning their attention to retail sales. “I think people want to see how this first step goes, and do the terrible things that some people say are going to happen, do they really happen, or is it sort of a non-event?”

Lynn wants to ensure people are responsible with home cultivation and that people understand the benefits and side effects of cannabis, he said. And in the meantime, Champlain Valley Dispensary + Southern Vermont Wellness will continue to emphasize the medical program’s attributes and make Vermonters aware of the benefits of signing up. Although cannabis businesses in Vermont are not allowed to advertise, they can promote themselves through education-based content, which Champlain Valley Dispensary + Southern Vermont Wellness has taken advantage of.

“We want to participate and be a part of the industry that grows up in Vermont because we have a sense and feeling that we have the experience to share with other people and as the state of Vermont becomes a national leader in the cannabis industry,” Lynn said. “Especially in the flowers that are grown here and the products that are made here, we’d really like to see Vermont become the standout in the cannabis world.”

Photos courtesy of Champlain Valley Dispensary + Southern Vermont Wellness

Aphria Inc. (“Aphria” or the “Company“) (TSX: APH and US OTC: APHQF) today announced that it has signed a Supply Agreement (the “Agreement“) with the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation(“MBLL“) to provide a portfolio of high-quality, branded cannabis and cannabis derivative products for sale in Manitoba’s adult-use market.

“We are thrilled to finalize this Agreement with the MBLL,” said Jakob Ripshtein, Chief Commercial Officer at Aphria. “Our broad portfolio of adult-use brands and products has been specifically developed to meet the needs of distinct consumer segments, whether new to cannabis or long-time aficionados. We’re excited that Manitoba’s adult consumers will have the opportunity to discover our thoughtfully developed brands and products.”

Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company will supply up to 2.7 million grams of cannabis and cannabis derivative products in the first year of the agreement, including both Ontario and BC dried flower, pre-rolls and cannabis oils. The wide range of products will be available for sale at licensed retailers across the province. It is anticipated that additional products currently being developed by Aphria, such as vapes and edibles, will also be made available in Manitoba when authorized for sale under the Cannabis Act.

“This partnership with Manitoba represents yet another significant step towards the future as we continue to make history across Canada in the march towards legal sales this fall” said Vic Neufeld , Chief Executive Officer at Aphria. “With our annual production capacity reaching 255,000 kg in early 2019 and our recently announced partnership with Great North Distributors, we are incredibly prepared to meet the anticipated demand in Manitoba and across Canada .”

We Have a Good Thing Growing

About Aphria

Aphria is a leading global cannabis company driven by an unrelenting commitment to our people, product quality and innovation. Headquartered in Leamington, Ontario – the greenhouse capital of Canada – Aphria has been setting the standard for the low-cost production of safe, clean and pure pharmaceutical-grade cannabis at scale, grown in the most natural conditions possible. Focusing on untapped opportunities and backed by the latest technologies, Aphria is committed to bringing breakthrough innovation to the global cannabis market. The Company’s portfolio of brands is grounded in expertly-researched consumer insights designed to meet the needs of every consumer segment. Rooted in our founders’ multi-generational expertise in commercial agriculture, Aphria drives sustainable long-term shareholder value through a diversified approach to innovation, strategic partnerships and global expansion, with a presence in more than 10 countries across 5 continents.

For more information, visit: aphria.ca

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are often identified by terms such as “may”, “should”, “anticipate”, “expect”, “potential”, “believe”, “intend” or the negative of these terms and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to internal expectations, estimated margins, expectations with respect to actual production volumes, expectations of shipments to Provincial Liquor Control Boards expectations for future growing capacity and costs, the completion of any capital project or expansions, and expectations with respect to future production costs. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation, risks associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; marketing costs; loss of markets; future legislative and regulatory developments involving medical marijuana; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; the medical marijuana industry in Canada generally, income tax and regulatory matters; the ability of Aphria to implement its business strategies; competition; crop failure; currency and interest rate fluctuations and other risks.