Scroll down for a gallery of images from the ribbon cutting and tour.
MedMen, a cannabis retailer, this week celebrated a ribbon cutting at their new facility in Sparks off of Mustang Road.
Co-founder and CEO Adam Bierman described the new location as the most advanced cannabis facility in the US, and therefore the world. Facilities such as this one will be constructed in California and New York as well, thus building upon an entire industry. Bierman added that there was “no better place” to start this project than northern Nevada, citing collaboration with both local and state officials, including State Senator Tick Segerblom who was in attendance at the event.
Attendees of the grand opening grew curious as to what state-of-the-art cannabis security meant, but tours of the facility would quench that curiosity.
The first stop on the tour featured an explanation of how the MedMen facility deals with outside contamination. Employees and guests are required to wear lab coats, disposable pant coverings, hair nets, and shoe coverings, and must use specialized hand and arm cleaning apparatuses. When all but freshly cleaned hands and eyes are exposed one can finally enter the production part of the facility.
The faculty has a 100 percent closed system, meaning that every element is controlled from the amount of light to air pressure between given rooms.
To maintain product consistency MedMen uses a technique were a young plant is chopped up and then used to create more of the same plant. One 4-inch plant can be chopped into four pieces which will grow into four plants. After about 20 to 40 days it can then be chopped into 16 plants, and so on. The facility can have up to 150,000 of these small plants at a time.
When moved into the large growing area the plants receive 18 hours of artificial sunlight daily. MedMen are expecting to produce 10,000 pounds of cannabis flower annually this way. With the closed system the plants will also act as a water purification system which feeds back into the water source.
MedMen plans to produce 150 pounds of flower a week and is a seed-to-sale company, meaning that the flower grown within the facility then becomes product at one of their retail locations.
While some of the flower will be made in to pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes or sold as a raw product, MedMen included two full kitchens in the design of the facility specifically for producing edibles and possibly drinks in the future. These products require oil made from marijuana, a process MedMen prides itself on. Using a CO2 system the oil is extracted from the plant material, and then is refined even further for better quality and consistency.
Learn more about MedMen at https://medmen.com
