YELLOW SPRINGS, Oh. (LEX 18) — Kentucky's medical marijuana program is currently live, but patients won't find any product for sale in the Commonwealth just yet. That's because the marijuana businesses are still getting up and running after being awarded licenses late last year.
However, one company that has a license to operate in Kentucky is giving Kentuckians a sneak peek at what everything will look like. Cresco Labs invited LEX 18 News to their marijuana growing and processing facility in Yellow Springs, Ohio on Tuesday. That's where we received a tour from "seed to sale," as they often refer to it in the marijuana industry.
"There's so much science here that goes into this," said Jason Erkes, a spokesperson for Cresco Labs. "I mean, we're tricking these plants every step of the way to make them think it's summer, or think it's fall, or think it's day, or think it's night - to be able to dictate how they grow, how they blossom, how tall they get."
"We think it's important to open up the doors, behind the green curtain, and show people what we do here," he added.
As Kentucky builds its medical marijuana program, LEX 18 has reached out to several marijuana facilities in the past. None were willing to open their doors and allow us to see the process. So, why did Cresco Labs invite us in? They say they want Kentuckians to understand what goes into regulated cannabis since medical marijuana is new to the state.
"It's brand new in Kentucky and people don't really know what to expect. They don't know what the products are going to look like. They don't know how it's manufactured, the conditions it's manufactured in," said Erkes. "So, to help normalize and professionalize the industry and show people, we wanted to show off what we do here."
"It's important for people to see and have trust and faith in the products that are made in a regulated and compliance-focused environment," added Erkes. "No one is walking into a dispensary in Kentucky, when they open, and sticking their hand into a glass jar and pulling out a bud. The products that are made and manufactured here are made in a very controlled environment."
Cresco Labs showed LEX 18 each step from the controlled growing and manufacturing environment. In order to view it, protective gear like lab coats, safety glasses, hair nets, beard nets, show covers, and gloves have to be worn. This ensures the controlled environment is not disturbed.
According to Joe Chek, the facility director in Ohio, they have about 10,000 marijuana plants and 6,500 are typically in flower. That allows them to harvest about 180,000 grams of product per week.
Chek says the process starts in the clone room, where baby plants are made from cuttings from mother plants.
"We don't grow anything from seed here. With seed growing, you get more genetic variation," Chek explained. "Therefore, less consistent end products."
Once those baby plants get a bit taller, they are taken to the veg room. For about three weeks, the focus is to get the plants bushier and more full.
"We want it to be taller and hardier so when we do move it over to a flower room, it's going to be resilient and it's going to be ready to produce buds later on its life cycle," said Chek.
The next step is the greenhouse, where plants mature and develop their buds. This is where different varieties of marijuana plants become very fragrant.
Once the plants are about 13 weeks old, they are harvested and hung upside in the drying room.
"We have massive de-humidifiers that suck all of the moisture out of the plant," said Erkes.
After a few days of drying, the buds are cut off of the stalks by employees. In that same room, raw products are sorted, weighed and packaged. Down the hall, in the kitchen, another team works to make thousands of colorful, edible products.
Every step of the way is traceable thanks to blue tags that hang at the bottom of each marijuana plant. These tags allow products in stores to be traced all the way to the beginning of the plant's life. Seed to sale.
"From the time a plant is six inches big to the time it's sold to a consumer at the dispensary, it's got that barcode tag on it," said Erkes. "What that does is give you traceability of where that plant is and what products it has been made into."
That gives the state a record of the plants. It also gives customers confidence in the product. The process is far more sophisticated than people may think, Erkes points out. He points out that due to stigma associated with marijuana, people may think "it's just some guys in a garage growing weed and that's not the case at all."
Now, Ohio is fully legalized marijuana state, so people can purchase products for recreational use. Kentucky's program is a narrow medical one. But Erkes says that doesn't change anything for them because their facilities are medical ones.
"What you saw here today was a medical operation. We just expanded and started producing more in order to service the adult-use customers," said Erkes. "Everything that you see - the processes, the procedures, the manufacturing of the different products - it's exactly the same whether we're making the product for someone who is using it to treat a medical condition or whether we're making it for an adult-use consumer."
Cresco Labs would not talk about its operational plans in Kentucky. However, the spokesperson said the company is excited to enter the Kentucky market.
"We're very excited to service the patients once things launch," said Erkes.
"If you picked up this facility in Ohio and moved it across the border to Kentucky today, we'd probably be like 90% compliant with what the rules are in Kentucky," he added. "But there's those intricate details of what they'll allow and what they won't allow that changes the rules and the structure."
