dispensary and grow house

4606 Wedgewood Blvd., Frederick gleaf.com

301-662-2222 out, people put in place, etc. When they got their application approved in 2016, and started to staff up.

We just had the cultivation in 2016. We had nothing else then. There was about 10 or so people. When I came aboard in 2018, there might’ve been about 40 people. We put our first plants in the ground in August 2017, had our first harvest in December 2018, and since then, we are now in four states with multiple operations in each state, two dispensaries in Maryland, a kitchen, a lab, a corporate office, a cultivation in Maryland.

In 2019, we took it to Pennsylvania and we have a very large cultivation and lab there. We also opened a dispensary in Ohio. Our latest venture is Virginia, where in 2019 and 2020, we were granted a license and started to build out all of our facilities in Richmond.

UnCapped: So Pennsylvania and Ohio are medically only, correct?

Cousin: Yes.

UnCapped: And Virginia and

Maryland are fully legal?

Cousin: Virginia is legal but it’s interesting. The dispensaries are for medical people only. They kind of have a D.C. law where people can grow their own but you can’t gift it, you can’t necessarily sell it. It’s supposed to be just for you. You can have up to six plants. But a person without a medical card cannot enter our dispensary.

UnCapped: So Maryland, as of next month, is the only place gLeaf will be able to operate in the recreational framework.

Cousin: Yeah.

UnCapped: Good trial run for Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia.

Cousin: Absolutely. I was just in Ohio a couple weeks ago, and I was like, “Are you having any movement? Is there any discussion about recreational?” And they said it is going to be on the ballot for them in November. So let’s hope for Ohio.

UnCapped: Ohio is a politically weird state.

Cousin: If we could all just come together and agree on cannabis, I think the world would be a better place.

UnCapped: If I remember correctly, anything you sell has to be in the state.

Cousin: Correct. There’s no interstate commerce at this time.

UnCapped: I believe gLeaf is the first company I’ve talked to that operates in all three tiers of this system, too. Was that hard to do?

Cousin: It’s always a challenge to make sure that you’ve got all your licenses in order, all your paperwork, everyone’s hired, trained correctly. We call that vertical integration, when you’ve got all three licenses to basically be able to produce, create, and serve and feed yourself before you serve and feed everyone else. Was it difficult? I imagine that it definitely was. It’s always a challenge to build out these businesses.

This excerpt has been edited for space and clarity. Listen to the full podcast at fnppodcasts.com/ uncapped. Got UnCapped news?

Email csands@newspost.com.