Canadian company receives Mexico’s first permit to grow and market cannabis in the country

MEXICO CITY, March 9 (Reuters) - Mexico's nascent legal cannabis industry on Thursday welcomed its first company authorized to grow at industrial-scale but focused on a booming niche market that mostly sidesteps the mind-altering qualities of the plant's flowers.

The local unit of Canada's Xebra Brands (XBRA.CD) is the first company to obtain permits to cultivate, process, produce and market cannabis in Mexico, according to a statement from the firm.

The authorizations mark the latest step of a major shift away from the Mexico's decades-long criminalization of the . . .