Kiwi MPs voted through a bill on Tuesday that will see a licensing scheme set up for the research, growing and export of medical cannabis products.

Hikurangi Cannabis, based in the small, remote North Island town of Ruatoria, this year became the first of a handful of commercial ventures licensed to grow for research, as several start-ups vied to get ahead of the competition in a potentially lucrative market.

The company's managing director, Manu Caddie, earlier told AAP commercialisation would create 120 local jobs in a town that "desperately needs new economic development opportunities".

"It's certainty going to be significant for our part of our country, in terms of job creation," he said.

Local residents, in one of nation's poorest regions, had even invested more than $1 million of their own money in the venture, hoping it would pay back in work, he said.

While the details of the regime will be worked out over the next year, Drug Foundation executive director Ross Bell is optimistic about what the law change may mean for communities where there were already skilled cultivators of cannabis working illegally.

"I would like to see New Zealand allow a domestic industry to flourish and one that is ... employing local people, people with those existing skills, people who are currently operating on the black market, he said.

"I'd like to see those folks move into the legal market and shift out of being criminals."

If an export regime could be formed, growers would be looking to get into Australia for a bigger market, he said.

Australian Associated Press