The first medical marijuana grower in Ohio to receive a Level 1 certificate of cultivation is off and running in the planting process.
Buckeye Relief in Eastlake is planting enough seeds to grow 8 to 10 thousand plants. Every viable plant will yield about a quarter to half a pound of cannabis.
The company told WKYC's Danielle Serino they'll be ready to start shipping product to dispensaries by the end of the year.
PHOTOS | Buckeye Relief begins planting marijuana seeds at Eastlake facility
"It took an amazing effort from our team at Buckeye Relief, the City of Eastlake, our construction partner, and local unions to build a facility of this quality and capability in less than 8 months. Our BR team is already focused on planting and shifting our efforts to producing medicine of the highest quality for Ohio’s patients," says Andy Rayburn, Buckeye Relief Co-Founder and CEO.
Rayburn's 60,000 square foot, pharmaceutical grade production facility is top of the line. From airlocks that blow off debris from your clothing, to footmats to wash and dry your shoes before you enter rooms.
There’s also a Tech room where water is filtered, fertilized and mixed with Co2, before being pumped in for the plants.
“We studied for a couple of years all the technology to achieve the optimal environmental controls in all grow areas," Rayburn says.
Their grow room even has a special cooling system and LED bulbs that are on a timer.
And it should be a new day dawning for the city of Eastlake as well, with tens of thousands of dollars in new revenue about to come in every year.
"We had a check in our possession of $20,000 for licensing that Andy pays every year that we can cash today," Eastlake Mayor Dennis Morley said at the end of July when Buckeye Relief was certified.