As New York prepares for the opening of the first recreational cannabis dispensaries upstate, PharmaCann General Manager of Cultivation Jake Warsavage is excited about the opportunities that the adult use market brings for companies who have been serving the medical cannabis community for the past six years.
“We predict a massive market for New York,” said Warsavage.
Currently, 36 retail licenses have been approved in the state – four of them in the Capital Region – and Warsavage shared that PharmaCann has started expanding threefold and is ramping up its production to more than 40 different strains in preparation for the growing market.
According to a new regulation by the Office of Cannabis Management, sustainable cultivation practices and limited energy utilization are now key focuses when looking at the adult use market. PharmaCann is not only accommodating them, but also has a vision of being sustainable for the future, especially for an industry that does or can use a lot of energy.
“That is being completely done to for wastewater retention, for nutrient retention and how we're going to be able to remove that and storage properly and for our heating and cooling," Warsavage said. “It's going to be a completely state of the art facility to make sure that we're [keeping] costs low and not using a lot of energy.”
Another employee of the company has been personally impacted by cannabis, which further motivates him to support this industry. Drew Lynch’s mother was once paralyzed on the left side of her body, leaving her with many medications and no relief after a complicated neck surgery.
“ ‘Doctor, you know, advise her that she could use that as an option and started weaning off the other medications,’ ” Lynch said he told a doctor. “And, you know, all of a sudden, 13 different pills turns into, you know, 10; 10 turns into seven and seven turns into three. And now we're at the point where it's no more painkillers, no more nerve blockers. She is just using medical cannabis to treat all of these different issues.”