Restaurant Owner Hopes to Open First Legal Medical Marijuana Operation in PA

Christine Green

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Rodney Yemc, owner of Rodney's Restaurant, is already renting warehouse space.

Hempfield Township, Pa. - Rodney Yemc has spent years owning and operating a successful restaurant in North Huntingdon, but now his passions are changing.

Yemc is the founder of the PA Cultivation Group, an organization he started more than a year ago in hopes that legislators in Pennsylvania would legalize medical marijuana. Yemc said he hopes to get one of 25 licenses that will be made available to grow and extract oil from the plants.

"We are going to do the growing and extracting. That's a little bit more money. It takes about $6 (million) to $7 million to pull that off," Yemc said.

He is renting a warehouse along Arona Road in Hempfield Township, which is just a few minutes drive from Rodney's Restaurant. Yemc said his investors are putting up the cash while he plans the strategy.

Yemc said he will begin by turning about 12,000 square feet of warehouse space into seven climate-controlled rooms to grow the plants. A separate room will have a system that uses pressurized fluid carbon dioxide to extract the legal oil for medicinal use. The remaining material will be destroyed.

If the business takes off, Yemc said he plans to expand to the other half of the warehouse, giving him 25,000 square feet of growing space.

"We're leasing an empty building right now to hold it so that when we do get a license, if we're awarded that license, we're ready to go," Yemc said. "To me, that felt like the biggest energizer. The thing that has got my passion on fire here, knowing that I could be one of the earlier pioneers in this business."

The legalization of medical marijuana is so new to Pennsylvania that there isn't even a board to oversee it, let alone rules and regulations for the business. Yemc is optimistic he will be one of the applicants to be awarded a license to grow and extract the oil as well as operate up to three dispensaries.

Yemc said he spoke with two Hempfield Township supervisors about his plan and that they were in agreement with it, so long as it was approved by the state. Pittsburgh's Action News 4 reached out to the supervisors in an email but had not heard back as of Thursday afternoon.

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News Moderator: Christine Green 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Restaurant Owner Hopes to Open First Legal Medical Marijuana Operation in PA
Author: Ashlie Hardway
Contact: news@wtae.com
Photo Credit: AP
Website: Pittsburgh Action 4 News
 
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