As the attitudes of lawmakers across the country have softened on marijuana use in recent years, increased legalization of both medicinal and recreational use of the drug have created a burgeoning cannabis cultivation and distribution industry that would have been unthinkable only two decades ago.
But while commercial cannabis growing operations today resemble that of other large agribusinesses, the level of security needed to grow and sell marijuana certainly goes well beyond what is required from corn and soybean farmers. Indeed, although specific regulations vary from state to state, all of them mandate that cannabis plants be tracked from seed-to-sale, meaning that cultivators must leverage a plethora of security technologies, including video surveillance, access control, intrusion detection, and asset tracking among other solutions.
Of course, the U.S. is not the only North American country that is experiencing a renaissance in its views on Marijuana. Last October, Canada, which has long allowed its citizens access to medical cannabis, became just the second nation in the world to legalize recreational marijuana use.
Just like in the U.S., Canadian growers are held to rigorous standards when it comes to the production and sell of cannabis. Among the nation’s licensed cannabis cultivators is Wayland Group. Founded in 2013, the company, which also has production operations in Europe, began with a two-and-a-half acre (30,000 square feet) grow operation in Oakville, Ontario, and is currently in the process of building a new 97-acre site (217,000 square feet in first phase and 165,000 square feet in a second phase, which consists primarily of greenhouses) next door.
SecurityInfoWatch.com (SIW) recently caught up with Stephen Lem, Senior Director of Security for Wayland Group to discuss the unique challenges the company faces as a legal cannabis grower, how they address regulatory compliance issues and other topics in this “At the Frontline” interview.
SIW: As a cannabis cultivator of your size and scope, what are your biggest security concerns and how are you addressing those?
Lem: The biggest concern we have as with any product deemed as a drug is diversion, which could be from a perspective of seeds, to clippings or finished product that is ready to go out. Obviously, the first step of prevention is to have initial controls in place and second is to mitigate that as much as possible. We depend primarily on video (surveillance) for that. Wherever there is cannabis, there is always going to be a camera in that area to watch over everything. We also have guards that are watching the cameras 24/7 to ensure if there is any diversion or suspicious activities they can be acted upon quickly.
When it comes to getting into areas where there is cannabis we also have access control with our card access system which features dual PIN technology. When you card in you have to enter a PIN as well in order to gain access and anything unauthorized will be flagged and a journal is created.
SIW: What would you say are some of the biggest misconceptions about security and the cannabis industry?
Lem: For those that are not governed by Health Canada, they believe they can’t get away with basic security, that security is cheap and that to get into the business takes a relatively small amount of money. It’s actually the opposite. There is significant capital required to not only build the facility out but to have the necessary infrastructure in place to support the areas that are heavily regulated. Folks think they can get in quick, put in cheap hardware and get away with it. That’s not the case.
SIW: What impact has the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada had on your business?
Lem: The biggest impact right now is to increase production schedules. We have now a different market that we are complementing in addition to our medical business side. With the recreational side we have to create more output and in order to create more output we have to not only have more grow rooms but we also have to have additional staff on hand to continue on the processing line down the chain and that impacts everybody – from those that are authorized to be on site whenever there is cannabis production activities going on to additional equipment required to make sure we have the capacity to scale and handle the growth.
SIW: When it comes to compliance, how important is security technology in helping you navigate various regulations?
Lem: We standardized. We have a single point of support and rather than trying to have multiple solutions in place that may be complementary but, on the other hand, requires additional support to keep things going, we try to standardize as much as possible either when it comes to the brand names of cameras we use (Axis), or to our archive equipment and servers (Pivot3). The more we standardize the less support headaches we have down the line.
SIW: Where do you think the security industry – both integrators and vendors – could improve when it comes to providing solutions for the cannabis industry?
Lem: We’re really using off-the-shelf hardware that’s just being purposed in a different vertical or industry. The only thing that I could see possibly is those that do use greenhouses, for example, is that some components have to have a higher tolerance in the environmental ranges of performance. As an example, I’ve got glass break and motion detectors that bake beyond their rated temperatures when the sun is out. That could lead to failing equipment and additional support costs.
SIW: Along those same lines, given the growth explosion we’ve seen in the cannabis market, do you think there should be more purpose-built, end-to-end types of solutions?
Lem: I could see that. We are presently building a purpose-built facility right now to expand with all of our growth plans and it’s not just a “tomato or cucumber” hot house from the 60; this is a purpose-built facility we are putting up here that’s being built for cannabis. There are perfect controls of temperatures, humidity and being able to dry the product in a quick amount of time while maintaining quality. That still boils down to the equipment that runs behind it – whether it be the IT platform side of it, those that support security, the archiving, the cameras – and things built specifically for that purpose at a price that is also supportable.
About the Author:
Joel Griffin is the Editor of SecurityInfoWatch.com and a veteran security journalist. You can reach him at [email protected].
