Medical marijuana regulations demand a medical grow room

I was ecstatic when I learned that our state had finally approved medical marijuana after years of struggling to get the amendment put on the ballot.

If you had asked me 10 years ago if I thought my state would be this far along at this stage with the fight to legalize marijuana, I would have laughed.

The political opposition at the time was nearly insurmountable, with money funneling in from out of state billionaires whose pockets are lined with profits from pharmaceutical companies. Although it will be a few years before we get full legalization in my state, we at least have a medical marijuana program even if the costs are too high for some users. It’s not cheap between the doctor you have to pay for a recommendation and the annual fees paid to the State Department of Health to keep your physical card active and updated. The companies who wish to cultivate marijuana in this state have their own hurdles to overcome to meet the demands of the regulations put on the medical marijuana program. Their grow rooms have to meet stringent standards to prevent contamination in the plants as they’re grown, harvested, and packaged. If proper climate control is not implemented at every stage of the process, you could end up with batches of marijuana with mold and mildew growing at a microscopic level. They also have to utilize equipment that won’t leach heavy metals and chemicals into the fragile plants and their growth mediums. If these cannabis companies don’t meet the stringent guidelines for growing medical weed, they could see their entire cultivation operations closed for good. And since everything has to be lab tested before it hits the market, they won’t be able to hide it either.

 

Growing cannabis