A Youngstown company is preparing to take part in the medical marijuana business that will soon be coming to Ohio.
Daniel Kessler is part of Riviera Creek, a company that’s in the process of taking an old warehouse on Crescent Street and making it into a medical marijuana cultivating operation.
“Everything is going to be in a safe and secure environment,” he said.
Kessler says Riviera Creek will be ready by September, when the growing and selling of medical marijuana can begin in the state.
“We have walls ready, our flooring is set and in, equipment is ready to be set up. So once all the electric and those other stages are done, we’re ready to roll,” he said.
But before Riviera Creek can start growing, it must first pass a Department of Commerce audit. Once approved, it won’t take long for marijuana to be harvested.
“There are some types of technology out there that take longer. We are really on the cutting edge of where the industry is and our cycle is a lot shorter than the standard,” Kessler said.
Once marijuana is growing at the site, the actual process will be off-limits to the public.
“That’s probably a proprietary environment, so the actual growing method, that won’t be necessarily open to the public, but the product certainly will be,” Kessler said.
Riviera Creek only has a license to cultivate marijuana. It has applied for a license to process it into medical products — pills, edibles and oils — but the processing licenses have not yet been announced.
Riviera Creek has no plans to apply for a dispensing license because it does not fit into the company’s business model.
