Revolution Cannabis hosted a media open house at its Illinois cultivation center on Monday, August 15th. After a little over a year of operation, the company has finally allowed a peek into their operation. The event was but one of many for the company as they plan on hosting one in each of the 19 states in which they operate. Revolution Cannabis revealed sophisticated equipment and employees dressed in lab coats and surgical scrubs at the event.
CEO Tim McGraw supervises the operations at the cultivation center.
“This is a laboratory, that’s why this does not look like a hippie’s basement.”
Revolution Cannabis starts with one hundred seedlings of a single strain. It is then bread and produced for harvest. The Mother plant, however, is preserved and stored in a large area called ‘The Mother Room.’ This enables the laboratory to determine what therapeutic values the plants had for their patients before choosing to reproduce it.
The vegetation room is also a must see. For the first few months of a marijuana plant’s life, it grows long, leafy, and about two feet tall. These plants are kept under bright white light for up to 24 hours a day.
The next stop is a fan favorite. The flowering room is where the magic happens. The buds that flower from the top of the plant are carefully harvested for their THC value. Depending on the plant, each one can generate about one pound of marijuana. These plants are kept under a warm yellow light to help the plant flower to its full potential.
In the trimming room, several employees wearing hats and facial hair nets sort out the larger buds which will be sold for smoking or cooking. The smaller buds and leafy “sugar trim” are sent to a laboratory to extract the most medicine from the plants.
The next stop is the lab where the buds are graded and tested for potency. The lab also serves as a kitchen to make baked goods as well as extracts and tinctures. A chemist on hand verifies that each dose is the same potency per dose.
Growing and cultivating marijuana indoors has major benefits for the patients who need this medicine. Grown in a facility free of excess carbon in the air, free of pesticides, and a consistent dosage definitely has its benefits. The cost of the medicine is generally more than it would cost on the black market, but again, patients are guaranteed to know what they are getting into by procuring it from a legal dispensary.
While challenges continue to present themselves to the innovators of the marijuana industry, business is up. WAY UP. Recent studies show marijuana’s popularity at an all time high. While 40% of Americans have admitted to using marijuana in the past, the approval rating is much higher at 80%. Interesting, 80% is enough to change almost anything in this country, especially a law.
