My Experience at a Cultivation Facility

I recently was able to visit a cultivation center near me and the tour absolutely blew me away. So, what is it like touring a high-security cultivation facility that supplies a good portion of a states medical marijuana program? First, we entered through a ten foot gate with barbed wire at the top. Once we parked, we entered through the first door where we were met by a security guard behind bulletproof glass. He asked us for our IDs and gave us badges while holding onto the ID the entire time we were on the tour. We were met by the tour guide who took us through the first door where each person had to scan their badges to get through. We then went down a hallway and around a corner to their main lobby where most of the offices were. We were then instructed to put on disposable gowns and shoe covers in order to enter the rest of the facility.

From there we went to very long hallways that were covered from left to right with Grateful Dead posters. They were the posters that were collected from the live shows. To me, this showed me that this facility was run by someone who was part of the cannabis movement from the very beginning.

Along these hallways, in-between the Grateful Dead posters, were huge windows that exposed the grow rooms. There was a veg room and a bloom room. These rooms were bigger than I could explain. Rows and rows of medical marijuana grown in a very systematic way. Each plant was planted in rockwool and had water and nutrients being delivered to its root system. Huge LED lights hung above the plants while multiple industrial size fans gave the plants much needed airflow. The tour guide informed us that the CEO plays a live Grateful Dead show for each grow room as the plants are about to head into harvest.

The smell of these 10,000 plant rooms punched you straight in the face the moment you walked in from the parking lot. As you progress down the hallways, the smell intensifies and it almost seems like all of your senses got a boost from the glorious smell of cannabis. Mesmerized by the smell of what I just saw, I slowly made my way to the curing room, where about six dozen plants were hanging upside down anxiously awaiting to be trimmed. These big buds were covered in trichomes and seemed to have been grown to perfection. An employee plucked a bud from the plant and broke it apart for us to smell. I asked "What are you going to do with that?" and he replied "Throw it away." My heart almost stopped as I watched him throw a perfect nug in the disposal bin, but that's the price of legalization. There will be regulations and SOP's set in place to maintain compliance, but from what I saw it was worth it. One of the best parts of this was that they used every part of the plant. They had pounds and pounds of shake that was waiting to be pressed and transformed into something much more beautiful than the shake at the bottom of your bag. From there we went to the trimming room where happy employees were jamming out to music in their headphones and trimming mass amounts of medical cannabis. Gloves and hairnets were used to maintain compliance, but the smiles were not mandatory and you could tell they loved their job. Continuing on, we went to see the facilities extraction rooms. We even got to see new edibles they haven't released yet. They looked like fine chocolates you would get as a delicacy. After looking at their extraction rooms and conversing with a few employees we looped around to the main lobby where we originally put on our disposable gear. The tour was over but the smell still lingered. We headed back outside to the security guard to exchange our badges for our IDs and we went on our way. On my way to the car, I could still smell that particular strain of cannabis in my hair. The smell was so intense it sunk into my hair and my clothes for an entire day, and what a great day that was. Have you ever toured a cultivation facility? What was your experience like? Was it similar to mine? Let us know in the comments below.