The drive down a bumpy road leads to an obscure valley tucked between two hills in the North Florida landscape outside Alachua.
Here CHT Medical is producing medicinal marijuana prescribed to ease the suffering of patients with cancer and neurological conditions.
CHT Medical is the designated medicinal cannabis nursery for Northeast Florida following voter approval in November of state constitutional Amendment 2 that legalized medical cannabis.
An outgrowth of the 35-year-old Chestnut Hill Tree Farm, it is one of seven botanical operations approved by the state of Florida to grow medicinal marijuana.
During a tour of the facility, Robert Wallace, president and part owner, gave a detailed explanation of how the facility works.
“We grow the plants until they’re flowered. We take the flowers and dry them. Then we extract the oil from those flowers using high-pressure CO2 [carbon dioxide] extraction equipment. We use the oil then to manufacture the different types of medicine,” Wallace said outside a laboratory where the medicine was going through final steps of preparation before being shipped to patients’ homes.
‘A fairly easy plant to grow’
The CHT marijuana facility is in sharp contrast to the family-owned Chestnut Hill Tree Farm, where rows of fruit, nut and landscape trees cover 220 rolling acres. The marijuana facility seems sterile and compact, with labs for processing and a 10,000-square-foot greenhouse in which plants grow hidden under a white tarp.
Marijuana’s distinctive smell hangs over visitors to the marijuana processing building and the 20 people who work there. It comes from the plants’ flowers, which contain the precious oils that CHT so jealously protects and processes.
Standing in front of a deep emerald bed of burgeoning marijuana plants, Wallace explained CHT is growing both less-potent marijuana similar to what’s come to be known as Charlotte’s Web along with a more powerful strain of the plant that generates the euphoric sensation once the drug is ingested. The low-potency option is generally favored by parents of children who suffer afflictions such as epilepsy and was approved for development by the Legislature in 2014. The high-potency variety is the drug approved by voters three months ago.
“In terms of heartiness, they’re a fairly easy plant to grow,” Wallace said. The greenhouse filled to capacity. Just outside, but still inside the fence, is a plot of vacant land ready for more cultivation operations.
Wallace said CHT just started home-delivery service, mostly in North Florida, in the past week. As the nursery continues to grow more plants, Wallace said, the objective will be to provide access to the drugs. And as the company processes more marijuana, more North Florida patients will be able to get access to it.
“Absolutely, it will get better,” Wallace said of access. “We are ramping up production as quickly as we can.”
Growing plants, extracting oil
The marijuana being processed at CHT is not meant to be packed into pipes or rolled into cigarettes.
Wallace said smoking marijuana is illegal in Florida, even for legal medical purposes. So CHT reduces the “hundreds of pounds” of marijuana being grown there to its oil base.
After the plants reach their blooming stage, they are ground into a powder and taken to the “super critical C02 [carbon dioxide] extraction machine,” Wallace said. That $250,000 device, equipped with cylinders and gaseous metal tanks, effects the metamorphosis from solid to liquid.
“This is CO2 gas; and at high pressure the gas becomes a liquid. The liquid then becomes a solvent and the solvent actually washes the oil out of the plant material. It’s captured in containers as it’s pressurized,” Wallace said. “Then we take the oil and use that oil in the manufacturing process.”
The oil is processed into a liquid to be used in oral syringes, other liquid solutions such as topical applications to skin, capsules and forms administered by vaporizer.
As of now, home delivery is nearly the only way to get the drug. But Wallace points out that all potential deliveries are made only after verifying the patient is on the state registry for those legally approved to buy it. There are only about 1,800 patients statewide currently on that registry.
In hopes of driving up that number, CHT offers advice on its website, chtmedical.com, on how to consult doctors and become eligible for access to the drug.
Dispensaries will fuel businesses
Ultimately, the easiest point of access for potential patients will be brick-and-mortar dispensaries where the drug can be sold to those who need it in their hometowns.
CHT is planning a dispensary in Gainesville and will then target other areas of the state including Jacksonville, Wallace said.
The ordering system for home delivery as of now requires a patient to be under the care of a physician for 90 days. The doctor determines if the patient should be added to the registry of people who can receive the marijuana, which they have to pay for after they register with the Florida Department of Health.
Trulieve near Tallahassee was the first Florida nursery authorized to grow medicinal marijuana, the first authorized to sell it, and the first to provide home delivery in the state. Trulieve now wants to be the first to have a physical dispensary.
Steve Vancore, spokesman for Trulieve, said it is already targeting dispensaries. He acknowledged the company is cautious about proceeding with a dispensary because more than 50 municipalities in Florida have enacted moratoriums blocking the businesses.
On top of that, Florida regulators haven’t finalized guidelines for oversight of the issue and taxation questions haven’t been settled.
Vancore said Trulieve definitely wants to open a dispensary in Jacksonville. He said no formal development plans have been submitted to the city, but the company is already making it clear the vision of the facilities won’t resemble a smoke shop or pharmacy. The company is seeking comfort, compassion and discretion.
“Dispensaries themselves will not be like a Walgreens. They will only sell medical cannabis,” Vancore said. “They’re very quiet, comfortable facilities where patients can come in and meet with someone who can explain to them how to use the product and can explain to them what types of products are available and consistent with the order from the doctor.”
The dispensaries will not have gaudy signs and neon, Vancore said. Rather, marijuana-growing facilities seek low-key dispensaries in towns across the state.
“Ours are going to be in relatively visible strip malls and places like that. But they’ll be discrete. At some level, they’ll be closer to a hospital,” Vancore said.
“It’s a little bit of consulting. It’s a little bit more old school, personal and private,” Vancore said. “You can’t go in there and also buy Gatorade or candy bars.”
No comments:
Post a Comment