WILMINGTON — David Haley hopes to break ground soon for the local medical marijuana growing facility.
Haley, President of Ancient Roots, LLC, was recently approved by the state for a Level 2 medical marijuana cultivation license which will be located on State Route 68 South, next to the UPS distribution center.
“Finding a bit of property in this part of Ohio was a bit of a challenge because there were a lot of municipalities who weren’t sure how they wanted to handle medical marijuana,” said Haley.
He pursued Wilmington because he knew the city was accepting medical marijuana business; he was glad of that since it was a reasonable location for the center.
A Level 2 cultivation license allows the business to start off with a maximum of 3,000 square feet of growing space. He described it as pretty unique for the industry and would allow him as a small business entrepreneur to really get into medical cannabis.
“It’s a size that really will allow us as a company to be focused on growing the highest quality cannabis possible,” he said. “That’s our goal as a business, to provide the best products for patients in Ohio.”
One of the reasons he went into medical marijuana is because he believes the medical value of it will help patients, and be a major step in curbing the opioid addiction in Ohio, as it’ll provide an alternative to opioid-based drugs.
House Bill 523 — which authorized medical marijuana usage — lists cancer, epilepsy, HIV diseases, Parkinson’s, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury among others as qualifying medical conditions for medicinal cannabis.
While he hasn’t had any negative feedback at this point about the cultivation center, he said he knows there are still concerns. But he said medical cannabis is incredibly regulated with security and compliance.
“Literally from the seed to the sell, all that stuff has to be tracked to make sure there hasn’t been any diversion. It’s a highly regulated industry, as it should be,” he said.
Right now there would be eight employment opportunities at the center. If they are awarded a processing license they applied for, about three more would be added. The jobs would include operations manager, an inventory tracker, a lead cultivation manager and two or three cultivation technicians.
The processing license would allow them to make marijuana oils and edible products.
“I’m very excited to be a part of this endeavor with the state of Ohio and to be able to bring a product to patients in need. I’m glad to be able to do it in Wilmington,” he said.
While there is no projected opening date, he hopes to break ground in three weeks.
