By: William Tian

On Wednesday, July 20th evening, the sky in Mildura, Australia turned bright, hot pink, leaving residents craning their necks and wondering where the glow came from.

Many residents were scared. A local interviewed by Marina Lopes said she and her family thought the world was going to end. “I was just like ‘What the hell is that?’ It is very bizarre, this huge pink light in the sky,” she said. Others were arguing over what it was, some people thought it was a dangerous alien invasion, and some people thought it was a pretty aurora.

After some investigation, the town concluded that it was not an alien invasion, but a special LED light from a secret marijuana facility. The facility is under the control of the cannabis research and production company, Cann Group. The lights gathered so much attention that the facility isn’t a secret anymore. Turns out the facility usually uses a black curtain to hide the lights, but someone left the curtains open. The lights were used to encourage plant growth. “Cannabis plants require different spectrums of light in order to encourage their growth,” said Rhys Cohen, senior communications manager at Cann Group Ltd.

The Australian Government allowed the Cann Group to conduct research on cannabis.

They received $1.4 million from the Victoria state government to develop a commercial medical cannabis facility. The facility harvested its first batch of cannabis earlier this month.

Their location was supposed to be undisclosed. It was until the sky lit up. “We’ve resumed normal transmission, but it definitely caught everyone’s attention in the meantime,” Crock, the Cann chief executive, said of Wednesday’s incident. “Any publicity is good publicity.” The facility is located in Mildura, and the site was previously a juice factory.

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