Meet Canada’s ‘weed sommelier’

Rade Kovacevic is a cannabis connoisseur.

As the head of customer experience at Canopy Growth Corporation, a cannabis producer in Ontario, Canada, his job is to make sure his firm provides the highest quality marijuana.

His company produces medicinal cannabis for patients across Canada, where recreational use is illegal but doctors can prescribe it to patients for medical purposes, such as pain management.

Patients then register with licensed producers, order online, and cannabis products are sent directly to them.

Marijuana’s legal status is set to change in Canada – in April, the government announced plans to legalise the sale of recreational marijuana by June next year, although details are still being hashed out among the country’s 10 provinces.

This move has piqued investor interest. US wine and beer giant Constellation Brands has invested $245 million in Canopy Growth.

In a 2016 report, financial services firm Deloitte predicted the market for legal recreational cannabis in Canada could be worth more than $26.bn annually.

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