WINCHESTER, Ky. (WKYT) – Cresco Labs in Winchester used April 20 to celebrate the company’s first marijuana harvest for medical cannabis, one of the first in the state to do so and one step closer for patient use.
Monday was a milestone for the medical cannabis industry in Kentucky. State officials were on site to see the harvest of 1,300 plants.
Rocky Adkins, a senior advisor to Gov. Andy Beshear and a 31-year cancer survivor, said he can see the plant’s benefits.
“This is an exceptional day here today it’s a big advancement for the commonwealth….even a bigger one for people who need this type of treatment,” Adkins said.
The Winchester building holds thousands of marijuana plants suited for patient use. Inside the climate-controlled building are 15 different strains.
Francis Sweeny, director of technical cultivation, said the plant’s full life cycle is 15 to 17 weeks and they are now ready for cutting.
One strain, Indigo, is a sleep aid that helps with stress and euphoria.
“Visually…stretch…smell…how much does she stretch in this amount of time,” Sweeny said.
Another strain, Billy Ocean, has a cone-shaped top.
“This can provide an appetite this can provide energy much like steroids do,” Sweeny said.
A third strain, Pineapple Breeze, provides pain relief, stress relief and works as a sleep aid.
The plants are clones, meaning they are offspring from mother plants. Those mother plants have already produced the next crop.
“The more we can share that knowledge of how this plant relates to our lives the closer we are going to become to it,” Sweeny said.
Adkins said it is hard to predict if marijuana will go recreational in the commonwealth in the near future. He said currently members of the General Assembly will watch the medical cannabis program as a test trial. He said it will take educational efforts to get General Assembly members comfortable with taking that step.
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