Grow facility may take root underground
Lower Pottsgrove bunker was built during the Cold War to withstand nuclear attack
LOWER POTTSGROVE >> The latest medical marijuana grow facility to make the rounds this week aims to truly be an underground operation.
The Lower Pottsgrove Township Commissioners voted 3-1 Thursday to send a letter of support to the state for a proposal to establish a facility in a Cold Warera bunker 20 feet beneath the surface of the ground.
Originally built in the 1960s by the phone company of the time to withstand a nuclear attack, the bunker was once full of what is now vintage equipment that would have allowed vital communications to continue after a nuclear attack.
It has since become an “attractive nuisance,” a place for teens to hang out and a canvas for local graffiti artists, said Commissioner Ray Lopez.
But Robert Basile and Geoff Whaling of Bunker Botanicals LLC would like to transform it into a 50,000 square-foot underground grow facility for Pennsylvania’s newly legalized medical marijuana.
Basile, who owns at least one nursing home, said he became interested in medical marijuana because of the relief it offers several senior-related ailments, such as Parkinson’s disease.
Geoff Whaling, who would managed the facility, has spent much of his energy in previous years advocating for the passage of a medical cannabis law in Pennsylvania and said he is pleased that the 17 medical conditions it is authorized to treat is more than any state that has legalized marijuana.
“One of the things you have to remember is we’re making medicine,” Whaling told the commissioners. “There is a great demand for this in Pennsylvania.”
But its unclear how great the demand will be since patients will have to be “qualified” to receive a prescription from doctors, who are also just getting up to speed on the use of the cannabis products as medicine.
Whaling’s initial estimate is between 65,000 to 120,000 patients statewide as things get up and running.
Pennsylvania’s law allows no plant material to be distributed under its law “so you won’t see bags of marijuana like you do in Colorado,” which has legalized recreational use of marijuana, said Whaling.
Rather, all Pennsylvania’s products will be in the form of pills, ointments, tinctures and other medicinal products. That’s what will leave the grow facility in an unmarked black van less than once a day, Whaling told the commissioners.
As for security, being underground certainly limits access, but there will also be a fence and two full-time security guards, said Whaling, cofounder of the national advocacy group, Coalition for Access Now.
“When I first heard about it, I thought it was going to be like a smoky opium den,” said Lopez, who said he has since visited the facility and been educated about the operation.
“It’s more like if Merck was making an application,” he said mentioning the Montgomery Countybased pharmaceutical giant.
The facility “would be a real win-win for the township’s tax base and for the company,” Lopez said.
The proposal joins a growing number of similar proposals both locally and around the state and will have to compete to be one of the two chosen to receive a state permit in this eight-county region.
“I’m not going to debate medical marijuana. I don’t agree with it, but that’s not why I’m voting no on this motion.” Stephen Klotz, Lower Pottsgrove Commissioners Vice Chairman
“One of the things you have to remember is we’re making medicine.” Geoff Whaling, Bunker Botanicals LLC
In the last two weeks, medical marijuana growing facilities have been proposed at a former industrial site in West Pottsgrove, an existing commercial building in Limerick and a fiveacre lot in Bridgeport as well as Lower Pottsgrove.
Whaling said the thing that makes their proposal stand apart — in addition to it being underground — is the fact that unlike many others, which are utilizing out-of-state expertise, “this is a Pennsylvania-based effort.”
“We are concerned those from outside the state will take advantage of the law and take those revenues home,” said Whaling.
“We understand and feel the impact when large longstanding companies like Firestone and Bethlehem Steel exit the area,” Whaling said in a press release. “We are excited to bring an enterprise that can create new, important jobs in the local community.”
The facility will initially employ six people at first and eventually employ up to 15 when the space in the bunkers is fully utilized, he said.
But not everyone was convinced.
Fire Marshal Lew Babel noted there is only one fire exit.
That concern, plus not having enough information about security, convinced Commissioners Vice Chairman Stephen Klotz to cast the board’s only vote against sending the letter of support.
“I’m not going to debate medical marijuana,” said Klotz. “I don’t agree with it, but that’s not why I’m voting no on this motion.”