Medical marijuana facility welcomed
Greene County town hoping for 100 jobs
Less than 24 hours after learning that their hometown will get one of the coveted medical marijuana grower-processor state permits, the people of Carmichaels and Cumberland Township seem pleased by the news.
“There’s probably going to be an epidemic of glaucoma coming down the road,” joked Bill Hyatt, 26, of Carmichaels, on Wednesday. “Everybody’s going to start having arthritic pain.”
Those are among the medical conditions that could get someone certified to obtain medical marijuana pills, oils and lotions once they become available at dispensaries around the state next year. It’s important to note, however, that the medicinal products being made in Pennsylvania will lack the same recreational effect of getting high by smoking marijuana.
Between now and then, Philadelphia-based AgriMed has six months to build and make
operational its grower-processor business on 60 acres southeast of Carmichaels in Greene County, a parcel previously owned by Buckeye Coal Co. AgriMed also has applied for a dispensary permit in the area. State officials are expected to announce dispensary permit recipients next week.
The land is overgrown now and no coal has been coming up out of the ground there for a while. But over the next several months, township officials said they hope to mine up to 100 good jobs on that property.
“We’ve had very little negative feedback” about having a marijuana-growing business in the neighborhood, said Annie Bargerstock, code enforcement officer for Cumberland. “By and large, it’s been people asking, ‘Where do we go to apply for a job?’”
That’s no joke for an area that has been hit by the decline of coal mining, with no major employer stepping in to replace those lost jobs. “We have a small business economy, a lot of mom-andpop shops,” Mrs. Bargerstock said.
Even a hoped-for reprieve from the oil and gas industry “has slowed down a bit,” township Supervisor Jim Sokol said.
Given that, it is perhaps little surprise that when AgriMed officials met informally with township supervisors last fall to propose growing marijuana less than two miles from his office, “It didn’t bother me at all,” Mr. Sokol said.
It’s not just the jobs, either. Mrs. Bargerstock said she knows local people with multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, post-traumatic stress, cancer and other maladies who could use some degree of relief. She thinks medical marijuana could prove a good option.
“We all know people who have taken too many pain pills and now can’t live without them,” she said.
Deanna Sumey, running some errands with 2-yearold grandson Hunter Babyak on Wednesday, couldn’t agree more. She has a niece who has autism and is prone to angry outbursts, she said, but cannabis oil calms her right down.
“There’s always going to be a few who think, ‘[Medical marijuana] is going to bring bad people to our community,’ but, honestly, you have bad people everywhere,” Mrs. Sumey said. She said she sees medical marijuana as a safe alternative to pain pills.
Mr. Sokol and Mrs. Bargerstock said they’ve been very impressed with AgriMed, from the team’s knowledge on growing and processing marijuana for medical use to its plans for securing the facility. “They spent a great deal of time and energy on the right and wrong,” she said.
Security is always on the mind of Cumberland Police Chief James Vogel, but he also sees the grow-process facility and the emergence of medical marijuana as “a good thing.”
Chief Vogel, who took over the 14-officer department six months ago after 23 years with the Pittsburgh police, said police are responding to a drug overdose call every two weeks or so. Medical marijuana could be a less habit-forming alternative to opioids, he said.
As to whether a marijuana grow facility will complicate his primary responsibility to safeguard the 6,000 or so residents living in the township’s 30 square mile borders, he’s taking a “waitand-see” approach.
“I’m a police chief, so I tend to guard my comments about predicting future events,” he said, smiling, “but we’re more than capable of handling the additional stress this may put onus.”