Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
In a field where soybeans used to grow stands a building where new plants are being cultivated to bring medical marijuana to patients in St. Cloud and others statewide.
LeafLine Labs on Wednesday opened the doors to its Cottage Grove facility to show off the place where medical marijuana is grown and processed into the liquid and pill form that will be available to qualified patients.
"If I didn't already believe in the power and the potential of a small seed and a big dream I most assuredly do now," said Dr. Andrew Bachman, as he pointed to the 42,000-square-foot facility that holds dozens of marijuana plants.
He led tours of the facility Wednesday that showed off the propagation room where the plants are started, the flowering room where they mature and the extraction room where the chemical compounds are removed from the plants.
"This is medicine you see growing here," Bachman said inside the room where the plants spend their first few weeks. It's climate-controlled to about 75 degrees and 60 percent humidity.
More than a dozen oscillating fans attached to the surrounding walls gently swirl the air around the plants, which are free of chemicals and pesticides. The plants are on wheeled trays, allowing the carts to be moved easily depending on their growth stage.
It takes several weeks from cutting a section off a "mother plant" until that trimming grows a root mass and becomes mature enough for the flowering room. The tray is wheeled down a hallway to the flowering room, where more lights and fans continue the maturation process. A short trip down the same hallway is the extraction room, which is the only place in the building where the odor leaves no doubt about what product is being produced.
It takes about four months for a trimming from a mother plant to mature enough to be ready for extraction.
LeafLine will have more product ready by July 1 than the demand, Bachman said.
As of Monday, 14 patients in Minnesota has been approved to receive medical marijuana on July 1. The state updates the numbers once a week.
Bachman hasn't said when the St. Cloud facility will open. LeafLine will open its first dispensary in Eagan and plans other stores in St. Cloud, Hibbing and St. Paul.
The other state-approved manufacturing and distribution company, Minnesota Medical Solutions, has said it plans to open distribution facilities in Moorhead, Minneapolis, Maple Grove and Rochester.
The rollout of medical marijuana in Minnesota is going to be a slow process, said Michelle Larson, director of Minnesota's office of medical cannabis.
"This is not a race," she said.
Bachman also hasn't confirmed where his St. Cloud dispensary will be.
But documents that LeafLine filed with its application to become one of the two state-approved medical marijuana manufacturers and distributors show that LeafLine identified its location as a building near Second Street South and 33rd Avenue that used to be home to Hollywood Video.
The product sold there will have started as a seedling in a Cottage Grove building where "horticulture meets medicine," Bachman said.
He emphasized that Minnesota is one of the only states where medical marijuana producers are also physicians.
"I'm incredibly proud of that," he said.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Medical marijuana sprouts from former soybean fields
Author: David Unze
Contact: dunze@stcloudtimes.com
Photo Credit: David Schwarz
Website: St. Cloud Times
LeafLine Labs on Wednesday opened the doors to its Cottage Grove facility to show off the place where medical marijuana is grown and processed into the liquid and pill form that will be available to qualified patients.
"If I didn't already believe in the power and the potential of a small seed and a big dream I most assuredly do now," said Dr. Andrew Bachman, as he pointed to the 42,000-square-foot facility that holds dozens of marijuana plants.
He led tours of the facility Wednesday that showed off the propagation room where the plants are started, the flowering room where they mature and the extraction room where the chemical compounds are removed from the plants.
"This is medicine you see growing here," Bachman said inside the room where the plants spend their first few weeks. It's climate-controlled to about 75 degrees and 60 percent humidity.
More than a dozen oscillating fans attached to the surrounding walls gently swirl the air around the plants, which are free of chemicals and pesticides. The plants are on wheeled trays, allowing the carts to be moved easily depending on their growth stage.
It takes several weeks from cutting a section off a "mother plant" until that trimming grows a root mass and becomes mature enough for the flowering room. The tray is wheeled down a hallway to the flowering room, where more lights and fans continue the maturation process. A short trip down the same hallway is the extraction room, which is the only place in the building where the odor leaves no doubt about what product is being produced.
It takes about four months for a trimming from a mother plant to mature enough to be ready for extraction.
LeafLine will have more product ready by July 1 than the demand, Bachman said.
As of Monday, 14 patients in Minnesota has been approved to receive medical marijuana on July 1. The state updates the numbers once a week.
Bachman hasn't said when the St. Cloud facility will open. LeafLine will open its first dispensary in Eagan and plans other stores in St. Cloud, Hibbing and St. Paul.
The other state-approved manufacturing and distribution company, Minnesota Medical Solutions, has said it plans to open distribution facilities in Moorhead, Minneapolis, Maple Grove and Rochester.
The rollout of medical marijuana in Minnesota is going to be a slow process, said Michelle Larson, director of Minnesota's office of medical cannabis.
"This is not a race," she said.
Bachman also hasn't confirmed where his St. Cloud dispensary will be.
But documents that LeafLine filed with its application to become one of the two state-approved medical marijuana manufacturers and distributors show that LeafLine identified its location as a building near Second Street South and 33rd Avenue that used to be home to Hollywood Video.
The product sold there will have started as a seedling in a Cottage Grove building where "horticulture meets medicine," Bachman said.
He emphasized that Minnesota is one of the only states where medical marijuana producers are also physicians.
"I'm incredibly proud of that," he said.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Medical marijuana sprouts from former soybean fields
Author: David Unze
Contact: dunze@stcloudtimes.com
Photo Credit: David Schwarz
Website: St. Cloud Times
