Company in qathet wins cannabis cup

Anyone who has visited three of the four qathet region cannabis shops may have noticed a product called High Quadz.

The local branding company started by Chris McDonough (with partners Nameer Ramza and Mark May) sources high-quality flower cannabis from micro-craft growers throughout BC. Its cannabis brand/product recently won a prestigious award in the cannabis world, the Arcannabis premier Cannabis Cup 2023, for best licensed producer.

“There were 128 different cannabis companies from across Canada in the competition,” said McDonough.

The competition started in February and the public could vote for their favourite bud. 

“We never gave [winning] much thought, but we made it through the first round,” he added. “By the second and third round we started to take [the competition] more seriously.”

The award will help the local company expand and be respected in the industry, according to McDonough.

There is plenty of competition since Canada legalized marijuana in October 2018. Canada became the second nation after Uruguay (at the time) to allow the commercial sale of cannabis nationwide.

Although sales of the ingestible and smokable drug haven’t been as robust as some had hoped, the province is now allowing more micro-licensing throughout BC. This means companies such as High Quadz can support smaller growers in the province.

The federal government’s reasoning behind legalization was to push marijuana out of the black market and quash organized crime businesses. Another reason the public and legitimate sellers support legalized marijuana is that the product is inspected and goes through quality control, so consumers know what they are putting in their bodies.

“We sell premium flower cannabis, and we seek out the best products from local growers,” said McDonough. “We only started operating in August, but so far we have a good following.”