The LSU AgCenter and its growing partner GB Sciences expects to receive final approval from Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain on Friday to start growing Louisiana’s first crop of medical marijuana.
GB Sciences plans to immediately begin cultivating medical marijuana at their south Baton Rouge facility, with work starting Friday evening or Saturday, says GB Sciences President John Davis. The first harvest is expected by early November.
Davis and representatives from the LSU AgCenter met with LDAF’s medical marijuana team on Wednesday afternoon to address concerns about their temporary growing facility.
“While the process may be slow, everyone wants to do it right. That’s why everyone’s being thorough and detailed,” Davis told Daily Report Thursday afternoon.
The facility eventually will have plants at different stages of growth located in separate pods, enabling a crop harvest every month to month and a half, Davis estimates.
GB Sciences will grow the marijuana strain cannabis sativa. Medicines produced will have varying levels of THC and CBD, two of the compounds extracted from the harvested plant. By alternating the amount of CBD and THC in the medical product, doctors and growers can pinpoint what works for patients’ individual symptoms.
For now, though, Davis says they’re going to try to keep it simple.
“We don’t want to get too creative at the beginning,” Davis says. “We just want to use simple formulations patients and doctors can understand.”
Each plant can produce 135 30-milliliter tincture bottles, with Davis saying each bottle provides an estimated month’s supply of medicine. The LSU AgCenter has been dealing with each of the state’s nine licensed pharmacies to address delivery, pricing and volume.
