By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
Louisiana’s first crop of medicinal cannabis has been held up for months due to regulatory entanglements. But after a lengthy Wednesday meeting between Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain, LSU AgCenter Chancellor Bill Richardson, and GB Sciences President John Davis, cultivation could begin as early as Friday, August 17.
GB Sciences is the approved medicinal cannabis grower for the Louisiana State University AgCenter and provider for the state’s nine dispensaries.
Medical marijuana was implemented in Louisiana in 2016 when a new law allowed for the use of cannabis-based pills and oils by individuals with specific conditions. The original list of ten conditions was expanded earlier this year to include PTSD, autism, Parkinson’s disease, chronic pain, severe muscle spasms, and glaucoma.
“I’m expecting to give them a temporary go-ahead to begin after our team does a preset final inspection (Thursday),” Strain told USA Today Network. “Everyone is working hard together to move forward.”
During the meeting, which lasted for close to four hours, the group worked out details that were delaying the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry’s approval of, among other things, the construction of a 1,800-square-foot cultivation and harvesting pod on one end of the facility.
“We are hopeful that going through this detailed process will expedite the approval process for our entire facility,” Davis told the Times-Picayune. “Because the department will be far more educated about what we are doing.”
Davis said that they hope to have plants in the pod this weekend before a final inspection on Sunday.
GB Sciences estimates that it will take three months before the first crop is cultivated, harvested, processed, and placed on dispensary shelves, expecting to have the first products available for sale sometime in November.
