SIMSBURY--Connecticut's medical marijuana industry continues to make strides.
This fall marked one year since cannabis was legally available to qualifying patients.
In the spring, FOX 61 got an exclusive look inside one of the four facilities licensed to grow medical marijuana in the state, Theraplant, which was the first facility to open its doors.
On Tuesday, FOX 61 got a peek at another grow facility, Curaleaf, in Simsbury.
Medical marijuana is now a budding industry here, and it's a business that's also changing lives, according to Curaleaf’s co-founder April Arrasate.
"I'm absolutely convinced that she's guiding every step of this,” said Arrasate, who doesn’t go a day without feeling the presence of her mother, Rachel, who diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. "I spent three years by her side following that loss. It was life changing."
April felt there were limited options as her mother experienced the traditional cancer fighting regiment, with less emphasis on alternative medicine. That's when the attorney, who has a bio-tech background, made the decision to dive into the medical marijuana industry.
"Having that experience drives me every day to create quality medicine,” said Arrasate.
April co-founded Curaleaf with Robert Birnbaum, backed by seven investors, after winning one of four licenses to grow medical marijuana in Connecticut.
The process starts in tiny cubes. The cannabis is nurtured, then potted in soil, similar to house plants.
"What we're trying to do is replicate nature as best we can,” said Curaleaf’s head cultivator, Terry Doyle.
Doyle believes an organic method produces the best plants, so natural ingredients are brewed in the facility.
"By growing in soil the ingredients are released over time,” said Doyle.
Four months later, the plants are fully in flower and ready for harvesting.
Curaleaf grows different genetic strains of cannabis.
"Some of them are very distinct for example on that tray over there, you'll see a purplish tinge to the plant,” Arrasate said as he showed us a sample in the grow rooms. "This on the other hand is our Bianca flower.”
Once the plant is harvested and cured, the buds are hand manicured.
Part of the raw product is then precisely measured, set to sell.
For those who don't want to medicate with the flower, the cannabis is brought to a lab and put through a CO2 extractor, eventually resulting in an oil, then placed in devices for inhalation, tinctures, oral sprays and capsules.
Curaleaf also puts the product in local honey, coconut butter and granola. For those who don't want to feel like they're taking medicine, Curaleaf has a bakery.
The Edibles Director is Samantha Boland, April’s sister.
"It's food that is medicine,” Boland told us.
It's all about combating the stigma attached to medicating with marijuana and making patients comfortable.
"This is a real medicine, and it has real applications that can change lives," April said.
Each strain has compounds that can ease or help debilitating conditions.
In Connecticut, 11 conditions can qualify a patient to get a medical marijuana license:
- Cancer
- Glaucoma
- Positive status for HIV or AIDs
- Parkinson's disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity
- Epilepsy
- Cachexia
- Wasting syndrome
- Crohn's disease
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection says seven more are in the process of being added.
Curaleaf employs 50 people. The new company has not yet turned a profit, but company leaders believe that will happen within the next year.
