The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
PROGRESS BEING SEEN
Buckeye Relief has over 9,600 marijuana plants in 50 varieties
One month after receiving their Certificate of operations, Buckeye Relief has over 9,600 plants in 50 varieties in various stages growing at their medical marijuana cultivation facility in Eastlake.
“The progress is great, we had a good first planting and we got an excellent yield,” said Founder and CEO Andrew Rayburn. “Our vegetation room is now two-thirds full and our next planting behind that was done a week ago.”
Rayburn is looking forward to their first harvest towards the end of November or in early December.
When the medical marijuana process was first approved in Ohio back in 2016, businesses were given the date of Sept. 8, 2018, to be fully functional and operational with product on the shelves ready for customers to purchase.
That is not going to be the case.
Only three of the 56 businesses awarded provisional licenses in November have been inspected and received a certificate of operation. Cultivation facilities cannot start to grow plants until going through a state inspection
and receiving their certificate of operation, according to Stephanie Gostomski, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Commerce-Medical Marijuana Control Program.
Gostomski notes that is all goes well there should be seven more cultivation facilities in the state licensed by the end of September.
“All the components of the medical marijuana control program are in place. The State of Ohio has worked diligently to make sure framework is in place form seed to sale.” Gostomski said. “These are private businesses licensed by the state. These licensees are private industries making their own operating decisions.”
Those who have received dispensary licenses will be delayed in opening until product is available for them.
“There is not going to be any dispensatories open and there is not going to be any product harvested by Sept. 8, so that
date will no longer hold,” Rayburn said. “Sometime around the first of the year there will probably be a few dispensaries
open state wide but they wont have product until at least December.”
Buckeye Relief applied for a dispensary license
but was not one of the companies awarded one.
Currently the business is waiting for work on an extractor/processor
license which will allow them to extract the oil from the plants and use it to manufacture lotions and assortment of other
products to be sold in dispensaries.
“They (The State of Ohio) have given out nine extractor/processing licenses of the 40 that were authorized,” Rayburn said. “They are giving them out every couple of weeks. So, while we were not one of the first nine we still hope to get a license here soon but we have no idea when that is going to be. We are still certainly in the running.”
The facility continues to hire more employees as they progress. According to Rayburn they are hiring a couple of new employees each month, and he intends to increase his hiring efforts in November for the harvest.
Anyone who can pass a background check that is interested in seeking employment through Buckeye Relief can complete an application on the company’s website.
“This is our first cycle so we are learning through every step and making adjustments,” Rayburn said. “Our second cycle will be more efficient our third cycle will be more efficient again and so forth.”