There could be legally-grown marijuana budding in Bruce County by Christmas.

Kincardine-based Advanced Medical Marihuana Canada (AMMCan) is turning 342,000 sq. ft. of old greenhouses near the Bruce Power nuclear site into Canada's largest medical marijuana factory.

Company president and CEO Peter Herburger says "We will be for sure yes. We have the biggest licence so far in Canada."

Phase one involves 50,000 plants - hopefully by Christmas. In phase two there should be 250,000 plants, enough to produce 24,000 kg of medical grade marijuana every year.

John Fowler, director of operations for AMMCan and Supreme Pharmaceuticals says "We could probably produce a deal more than that, so we might go back to Health Canada to increase the size of our licence even."

Nothing would make Sarah Herberger happier. She's the reason her father has started this venture. She has fibromyalgia and has been using marijuana medically for years. She's also the vice president of AMMCan.

"I wake up every morning just looking at the amount of product and the amount of people it would help. It's absolutely mind blowing."

But they don't actually have a licence to grow anything yet, the greenhouses must first be retrofitted and their worthiness proven to Health Canada before getting a licence to actually start growing.

There's also the issue of the medical community, which is still very much split still on prescribing medical marijuana.

Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says "The courts have put us in this awkward position. It was the courts that said marijuana should be available to certain subsets of patients, unfortunately that means marijuana never went through the testing other products had to go through."

Peter says big pharmaceutical companies can bankroll clinical studies, and now that marijuana is about to go "mainstream" the money should be there for similar studies on pot.

"Maybe not in two years - maybe in three years - but the chance is there that we can change and show, yes there is value to it. It's not just talk, there is something to it."

When all is said and done AMMCan will have sunk nearly $25 million into this venture and he's not alone.

Companies are racing to get product to market and be amongst the first legitimate producers of pot in Canada.