“It’s a very valuable tool,” Bilton said. Bilton said licensed producers that rushed to market amid legalization in 2017 missed opportunity to legitimize cannabis genetics, bringing on board perhaps only a handful of strains with medium THC levels. Bilton said Dunesberry Farm spent two years building a genetics bank, with 275 strains, including high terpene and THC levels. Bilton said contacts were made at the Lift and Co Expo, a three-day cannabis event held in Vancouver before the pandemic. “We made a ton of contacts there and, through those channels, and the internet, we were able to secure our genetics,” he said. “But we’ve also known and met some people from the legacy market and, so, obviously those folks had plants and genetics. We were able to bring those in and declare them. To that point, we’ve had people say, ‘Look, I’m done with the illegal market, I’m jumping to the legal side.’”