YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio (WDRB) — As Kentucky patients wait for medical marijuana in their state, one company shared an inside look at a cultivation facility in Ohio to help increase transparency around the state’s rollout of its medical marijuana program.

Cresco Labs runs its cultivation facility in Yellow Springs, a few hours north of Louisville. A look inside its operation is a look into the future of Kentucky’s medical marijuana business.

“We think it’s important to open the doors, behind the green curtain and show people what we do here,” Cresco Labs spokesperson Jason Erkes said. “How can you launch something new in a state without letting people see what it is and telling them about it and being transparent about the way that the products are being grown and manufactured and controlled?”  

Cresco Labs is one of the largest multi-state cannabis companies in the country. It’s connected to at least one cultivation license in Kentucky, and the company wanted Kentuckians to see how strict and regulated the cannabis industry truly is.

“If you picked up this facility in Ohio and moved it across the border to Kentucky today, we’d probably be about 90% compliant with what the rules are in Kentucky,” Erkes said.

About 10,000 marijuana plants are growing inside the massive warehouse. 

“We don’t grow anything from seed here,” Facility Director Joe Check said. “We grow everything from clone.”

Chek said the operation is tightly regulated, all the way to processing and packaging. Each plant has its own barcode that can be traced and tracked along the way.

“This is agriculture. This is science. This is manufacturing,” Erkes said. “Everything under this roof is a very controlled environment.”

The company couldn’t share detailed plans for the Kentucky market, saying it’s still going through the regulatory process.

“Kentucky’s a very exciting market,” Erkes said. “It’s got a great regulatory structure, and we’re very excited to be able to service the patients once things launch.”

So when could that happen? Medical marijuana has been legal in Kentucky for more than two months, and it’s still unclear when patients will be able get it. Seeing a massive facility like Cresco Labs’ helps put things in perspective.

“I think, from the time we broke ground here in Ohio until the first plant was harvested was probably just under two years, maybe 18 months … and there’s a lot that goes into it,” Erkes said.

The transparency can help manage expectations for patients waiting for the medication they need.

“It’s hard to forecast when things will actually be ready,” Erkes said. “There are so many steps in the process, from issuing the licenses to cultivators, educating the doctors on how to recommend cannabis, getting patients cards, building dispensaries — there’s a lot that goes into this and a lot of things that sync up all at once to get this to market.”

In a press conference late last year Gov. Andy Beshear said he hoped medical cannabis would be available in Kentucky during the first quarter of 2025. Well into the first quarter, it seems the state is still a long way off from products on store shelves.

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