6 minute read
DISTRICT CANNABIS
This month we are happy to welcome and feature newcomer District Cannabis to the Maryland medical marketplace! We were invited to their official ribbon cutting ceremony where founders Andras Kirschner and Edward Weidenfeld presented their ambitions for their new cultivation license, as well as disclosed their personal relationship with Cannabis and the endearing backstory that led to their partnership.
Having only recently finalized their cultivation license in Maryland, District Cannabis is definitely a new presence on the Maryland medical market. But some of you may have already heard of them or even tried their products - in our neighboring recreational market of Washington D.C. - where out of state medical authorizations are accepted.
Upon asking around the Maryland scene, everyone seemed to have the same opinion of District Cannabis, which could be summed up as “consistently fire.” That kind of reputation is invaluable in this industry, and the fact that this company has already tapped into the minds of Maryland patients so positively, is a huge indicator of their future in our state.
As I mentioned, District Cannabis only recently finalized their license and at the time of our tour, had only just started their first round of plants. And without observing plant growth, it is quite hard to judge the efficacy of a facility. But I will say that all their equipment is set up to truly be state of the art, and the workflow throughout the facility looked to be streamlined to a competitive edge. I have no doubt of their ability to own their reputation for producing consistent and quality products - as soon as those first plants make it through flowering! Having a state of the art facility is of course a
huge part of their formula, but it isn’t what I feel makes them stand out from the crowd.
The real source of their superb reputation comes down to the vision of co-founders, Weidenfeld (Chairman of the Board) and Kirschner (CEO and Cultivation Director). This combination of top level leadership/ownership is, in my experience, unique to the Maryland industry. The first factor in their success comes from Weidenfeld, who is a medical Cannabis patient himself. To be clear, the criteria for being a medical patient has expanded rapidly over the past couple decades, but there was a time when this entire movement was
fueled by the suffering of some of the most difficult conditions for people to deal with.
Chairman Weidenfeld was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease over 15 years ago, which is a tremendously difficult diagnosis to receive. Up until that point Edward had never used Cannabis and never really thought to. Indeed, it was many years before he came to find the benefit of Cannabis - but find it he did after reading some Israeli studies that suggested positive benefits for Parkinson’s patients using medical Cannabis. After discussions with his primary care doctors, he decided to try to explore the benefits.
At the time he had no access to medical Cannabis and was forced to turn to his sons to help him source our beloved plant, and learn the ropes so to speak. But after acquiring the plant, it was not long at all before he noticed the profound benefits Cannabis brought to the symptoms he deals with to this day.
The benefits that came with dealing with motor symptoms like tremors really made a huge difference in his quality of life and, armed with that relief, he began to medicate with Cannabis and start the quest that led him to meet CEO and Co-Founder, Kirschner.
Now there are very distinctive benefits that Cannabis provides for a
variety of medical symptoms. There is also a world of relief that slides under the radar of mainstream clinical studies that Edward also experienced, that further solidified his love for this plant and vision for the future. That is the separation from our emotional distress while medicated. I am not talking about seizures ending or inflamed muscles calming - I am talking about dealing with life perspectives, and the anxiety and depression that comes with living with some of these conditions.
Edward confessed that he suffered a great deal emotionally and psychologically after getting his diagnosis, and that only made his physical symptoms harder to manage. Dealing with the secondary effects of our conditions is often a glossed over aspect of the patient experience, but Edward experienced firsthand the importance of this relief on top of his physical symptom relief. Cannabis not only helped him gain control over some of his symptoms, but it also helped him take a step back emotionally and gain a new lease on life.
Since then he has been battling with Parkinson’s, using Cannabis as a powerful tool in that fight. It is precisely his interest in his own quality medicine that led him to Andras, who at the time when they met, was running a medical cultivation cooperative out west. Andras is the other piece of the management team that I feel really sets District Cannabis up for success!
A medical cooperative is a specific type of growing structure that hasn’t reached Maryland, but is available in other states. Essentially, the regulation allows for patients and caregivers to organize cultivation direct from grower to patient, specific to that individual patient’s needs. A grower, for example, might be able to grow four or five plants per patient in the cooperative, specifically for a certain patient, who in turn pays a membership for the consistent and more custom supply of Cannabis. This is in contrast to our state, where a patient can only buy directly from a dispensary and are subject to the varieties that the cultivation companies decide to grow, based on their own understanding of the market.
Andras’ background in this structure means that he is very in tune with the average patient’s needs, and has the skillset to produce a wide variety of cultivars specific to the needs of a variety of patients. Naturally, Andras impressed Edward when they met, and the two became fast friends and ultimately partners in an endeavor to ensure that the highest quality Cannabis reaches the patients who suffer. Thus, District Cannabis was born.
The two founded their cultivation company and one of my favorite things to see a Cannabis company do, happened - Andras took on the role of head of cultivation! This means that an actual license holder and owner of the company will be directly responsible for plant production.
It is rare to see license owners who even use Cannabis, let alone know anything about how to cultivate it. Even companies that hire excellent growers with a ton of experience ultimately have a ceiling on their potential, simply by the fact that it is very hard to align a business goal with a plant cultivation program that centers around true and genuine quality. There are always sales goals to hit and ROIs that need to be made, and I am sure Andras is well equipped to handle those types of requirements.
He and Edward both set the goal for consistent quality Cannabis, and I feel it will be very easy for him to stay the course, given his experience as a cooperative grower and his ownership of the company. All in all, this pair really synergizes in a way that bodes quite well for the future of the company and for Maryland medical patients overall.
A company owned and led by a true Cannabis patient and an accomplished Cannabis cultivator is something we have yet to see here in Maryland. I have high hopes that District Cannabis will become a major player in our industry over the next year.
