Gropech is hoping it will get the go-ahead to build a 60,000 sq ft facility in Oakland, California, which will house 30,000 cannabis plants, producing as much as $50m of the drug for medical purposes each year.
Derek Peterson, co-founder of Gropech, said: "The laws in California were sort of backward, because they addressed retail sales before wholesale production. It would be like if you built a bunch of liquor stores, and only afterward built distilleries."
The factory bid comes as Gropech's sister firm reopened the country's largest cannabis-friendly hydroponics superstore, , formerly known as iGrow,
The rebranding is part of a national expansion plan that has seen weGrow become the first superstore of its type – jokingly referred to as the "Home De-Pot" of hydroponic stores.