Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program is up and running, and state-licensed cannabis businesses Cresco Labs and Solevo Wellness broke new ground for the industry as some of the first to grow and sell regulated medical marijuana in the state.
“So far, nine times out of 10, everyone’s excited about this,” says Solevo’s dispensary manager, Rocco Levine. “I didn’t personally think, from living here my entire life, [that] we were going to be so accepted.”
“Everyone I’ve spoken with here has embraced the medical marijuana program with open arms,” agrees Daniel Palmer, director of cultivation for the Cresco Yeltrah cultivation facility, which sent its first shipment to Cresco’s Pennsylvania CY+ dispensary last week. “I think everyone’s really excited to have a new industry in this area. … Everyone sees the benefit from a medical standpoint but are also excited to have increased jobs and revenue for areas that haven’t seen a new industry come through in quite some time.”
“I think it’s incredibly exciting for folks who are local to here,” adds Zach Marburger, Cresco’s chief information officer (CIO). “They see it happening in Colorado, they see it happening in Illinois, just not where they’re at, and so to work here locally with our team and actually bring it to light, it never gets old. … We have the opportunity to bring relief to upwards of 14 million people. We’re very excited about doing that.”
Compliance with State Regulations
Palmer came from Washington state and says Pennsylvania has succeeded in rolling out its medical marijuana program. “It’s been a long road, but they’ve done a really good job in bringing medical marijuana to patients,” he says.
Similarly, Levine says Pennsylvania has some of the strictest cannabis regulations he has seen. He grew up in Pittsburgh but worked for six years as the manager of a San Francisco dispensary before returning home. Pennsylvania has taken a more hands-on approach, now that the cannabis industry has arrived in the Keystone State.
“We have rules in place that kind of tell us: Put our left foot here, put our right foot here, in almost every process,” he says. “It’s almost like they wrote our SOP for us. … They put every law from everywhere else and added some themselves.”
Pennsylvania’s Department of Health (DOH) has been challenging to work with, Levine adds, but the DOH is made up of only two people who work with the growers and dispensaries to make them operational and compliant.
“It’s been difficult, but at the same time, all those measures are correct measures made by those two employees,” Levine says. “They did a great job. I would never put them down for making my job more secure, making my patients more comfortable.”
The regulations also help Levine and his team feel confident in their operations, he says, because of the state’s clear limitations.
“We follow this pattern, and everything will work as far as the Department of Health is concerned,” he says.
Flower and edibles are prohibited by state regulations, but Cresco Yeltrah is in a good position to handle the extract-only market, Palmer says.
“We have a lot of experience producing top-notch extracts,” he says. “We didn’t have to really change any of our normal standard operating procedures other than the fact that we’re not going to sell any of that flower. All of our facilities have top-notch labs, so we’re business as usual except for flower sales.”
Products on Cresco Yeltrah's CY+ dispensary shelves.
Adjusting Business Models
Cresco is an Illinois-based cannabis operator that has expanded to run vertically integrated operations in Pennsylvania, where it is permitted three dispensaries in addition to its cultivation facility. The Yeltrah brand is Pennsylvania-specific and is Hartley spelled backwards—a nod to a local family the company partnered with to break into the market. Cresco also holds a cultivation license in Ohio, where it hopes to become vertically integrated, as well. The company’s advisory board includes professionals from various industries spanning from security to cannabis advocates, who assisted in the complete design, build and layout of the Pennsylvania facilities.
“As the number of patients increases, we can have sustainable growth within Cresco Yeltrah to meet the increased demand of patients as more patients come online,” Palmer says. “Basically, [we’re] planning ahead for those adjustments so we don’t have to scramble to catch up.”
It is business as usual in Pennsylvania from a cultivation standpoint, Palmer says. Cresco has specific standard operating procedures (SOPs) regarding cleanliness, professionalism and more to streamline processes and allow Palmer and his team to focus on plant health.
Pest management strategies at the new location are also standard across the Cresco platform, Palmer adds, and begin at the front door.
“Humans are generally the biggest factor for pest problems in a garden, and so when an employee comes into the building, we have locker rooms where everyone will change into scrubs and they have work shoes that never go outside and that reduces the human factor for pests into the facility,” Palmer says.
Cresco also uses beneficial insects as a preventative to keep pests at bay within the grow if something were to make it past the company’s other protocols.
Employee Training
Pennsylvania has a two-hour training course that all employees must complete, Palmer says, which covers a range of cannabis industry topics from the medical use of marijuana to product diversion. In addition, Cresco requires all employees to read and review the company’s SOPs, even for departments they are not working in, so that they can assist wherever needed.
“Then, because we do have facilities in other states, most employees will travel to our other facilities and get hands-on training ahead of time so when they come and start their positions here at Cresco Yeltrah, they already have a working knowledge of what their job is,” Palmer adds.
Pennsylvania requires specific in-person and online classes for dispensary employees, as well, and the pharmacy and dispensary manager must go through more extensive training than the budtenders, or patient care specialists, as Cresco calls them.
“We have our own internal set of learning management systems and standard operating procedures that we run folks through with different nuances and changes based on the market we are in,” Marburger adds.
In Pennsylvania, dispensary employees learn to articulate to patients that they cannot purchase flower and that all of Cresco’s products come from extraction and manufacturing processes.
“That’s a large part of our employees’ understanding—how our products are made and the benefits they offer consumers—because most folks are often coming from gray or black markets where the most popular form of consumption is smoking flower, and that’s not something we can even engage in on a regulated level,” Marburger says.
All Cresco employees are also trained on MJ Freeway, Pennsylvania’s dedicated tracking software.
Hiring is challenging in a new market like Pennsylvania where not many people have experience in the cannabis industry. Therefore, Cresco also trains new employees on basic subject matter, Marburger adds.
Solevo also worked tirelessly to educate the company’s employees and prepare them for their first sales, Levine says. New hires joined the team about five weeks ago.
“A lot of these people are from Pittsburgh,” he says. “Some of us moved away to a medical state, some of us have stayed, so we have that cross between knowledge and customer service. [Management] gave us enough time and resources to [educate] our employees, which, from what I’ve seen at other dispensaries right now, is a huge, huge advantage.”
Challenges and Opportunities
Construction, weather conditions and the physical nature of the job have been challenges for Cresco, Palmer says.
“Ultimately, medical marijuana is not much different than other agricultural-related trades, so it is a physically demanding job and I think a lot of people don’t understand that when they first come into the industry, but it’s essentially a farming job,” he says. “It’s no different than working in a greenhouse or any other agricultural-related field.”
The company is looking forward to exploring and developing new products in its lab, Palmer says.
“Being an extract-only market allows us to think outside the box in terms of bringing product to the market,” he says.
The First Sales
Once product hits Cresco’s dispensaries, it is sold by a state-licensed pharmacist, Marburger says.
“The biggest [difference in Pennsylvania] is we actually have to have a state-licensed pharmacist on staff whenever we are open,” he says. “It’s not just a team of retail folks, it is actually somebody who is licensed by the state to be a pharmacist at a CVS or a Walgreens or the like.”
Like Cresco, Pittsburgh-based Solevo also has an executive board made up of doctors, lawyers and a CPA, who have helped the company craft its dispensaries into medical facilities.
“[Our employees] make me feel like I’m coming into a really fancy doctor’s office,” Levine adds, referencing Solevo’s dispensary in Squirrel Hill. “It’s unbelievable how it feels; as a dispensary manager I never thought that could be possible in this industry, but they did a perfect job at it.”
Advertising and Educational Campaigns
The state has restrictions on cannabis marketing messaging, although they do not prohibit companies from using specific channels to advertise, Marburger says. Cresco currently has billboards throughout Southwest Pennsylvania, Facebook ads and local newspapers ads that do not promote the company itself, but rather awareness of the program, Marburger says.
“Each time we go into a new state, we launch a ‘State of Relief’ campaign, punning on the fact that their state just launched this program,” he says.
For example, in Illinois, Cresco used a swimming pool in the shape of the state and said, “Welcome to a State of Relief.” StateOfRelief.com is a resource for potential Pennsylvania patients to learn the steps necessary to participate in the medical marijuana program and to access all the required forms, Marburger says.
Pennsylvania has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic, Marburger adds, and he is hopeful about the growing number of people who are exploring medical marijuana as an alternative to opiates.
“By and large, the local community has been incredibly supportive,” Marburger says. “We had a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the past couple weeks for our open house that was well-attended by every local community stakeholder, and the mayor cut the ribbon and the chief of police was here, so we think the more challenging aspects will be continuing to educate lawmakers on the current aspects of the program that potentially prohibit it from growing.”
Solevo also wants to ensure that medical marijuana is viewed as medicine and help educate the public on the topic.
“Our top three [goals] right now would be: comforting the patient with customer service, making sure that through our marketing we’re one of the most educational dispensaries … and our patient services,” Levine says.
The stigma of marijuana use continues to subside, and more people continue to understand that cannabis is a medicine and not just a plant, he adds.
“They’re excited to have a better life, and couldn’t believe that it actually happened in Pennsylvania,” he adds. “We’re here to give back to the community. Of course, there’s the financial aspect of this, but in my eyes, the patient comes first. And we will do anything we can because the medicine’s going to be expensive, I need to offer as many things as I can for them to have a better life without having to pay us for it.”
Photos courtesy of Cresco Labs
