It will be grown indoors, all year round. Even if the building is not heated in the main indoor growing area, they can suffice with heating lamps for now. However, they will need very specific temperature control if they are going with an advanced grow cycle.

I doubt any types of trials would need animals. Once cannabis is lab tested for things like pesticides, mold, thc/cbd content - it is good to go for humans. Unlike a manufactured pharmaceutical where they can never be sure of the side effects unless they first sample a diverse population set.