Medical marijuana facility Rise stages with ribbon cutting in Carson City

Medical cannabis will soon be available to qualified patients in Carson City and surrounding rural counties who cannot make the trips to Reno or Las Vegas for their medicinal needs.

Rise Carson City staged a grand opening Thursday morning with a ribbon cutting ceremony and an open house for visitors at the new cannabis dispensary facility located at 135 E. Clearview Drive, Suite 119, in South Carson City.

Rise staff along with representatives from Chicago, Illinois-based Green Thumb Industries (GTI), the dispensary's the parent corporation, were on hand to welcome visitors to the open house event.

The facility is not yet open to the public, but an official public opening is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 20, GTI spokeswoman Jennifer Miller said.

Local dignitaries from the Carson City Chamber of Commerce and the Municipality of Carson City were also present to welcome the new business to the community.

Carson City Supervisor Karen Abowd and City Manager Nick Marano presented Green Thumb Industries and Rise Carson City with a certificate of appreciation during the preliminaries to the open house.

Abowd joined Rise Carson City General Manager Tyler Brennan to cut the ribbon and officially open the facility.

"The reason why we chose Carson City specifically is that we feel it is a really deserving and underserved community," Miller said. "People here deserve it and we want to be the ones to join the community. We're thrilled to be here and be able to do that."

Miller said construction on the dispensary began around March of this year after all of the necessary licensing and permits were obtained.

Efforts were then stepped up to open in a short amount of time.

"It's a been six-month sprint," she said. "There are over 600 patients in Carson City alone that are having to travel far distances to get access to treatment. That's why Carson City has been on our radar."

Miller said the company feels Carson City is also the most central location to reach underserved patient populations across rural Nevada.

"There are spaces in Nevada that have deserts of accessibility between them for the treatments," she said. "We believe we will get a lot of visitors coming from those areas as well."

Rise Carson City Dispensary will offer consumable medical cannabis products that take edible forms such as flour and concentrates, among others, Miller said.

Cannabis products sold through Rise dispensaries are not to be confused with illicit marijuana smoked recreationally, Miller said.

The two are actually very different, she said.

"We have a variety of really great quality medical cannabis products from cultivators around Nevada," she said. "A majority of the products have good blend of high CBD content, so it's not about those looking for high THC content to get fried. It's not that at all."

Rise products will feature more of the compound CBD, which is a chemical property in cannabis containing the most medicinal qualities, Miller said.

But the key to the success of Rise's medicinal cannabis, she said, is producing the right ratio of tetrahydrocannabinoids (THC) and CBD chemical compounds.

THC is the chemical property most often associated with mind-altering drug highs and the known hallucinogenic qualities of marijuana. Due to its potency, THC has the potential to have the most harmful effects on the body.

But the correct ratio of THC with CBD — more of the latter than the former — turns out to possess the most medical benefits for certain health conditions, Miller said.

"It's really the ratio of the two together. There's a really good blend of the right balanced products," she said. "It's all in the ratio of the THC and CDB. You don't have any of the hallucinating effects of the product. It's really about pain management for a variety of qualifying conditions."

Miller said the THC to CDB ratio, along with a blend other chemical compounds like Turpines, have shown to have optimal medical benefits for patients.

These blends, she said, are naturally occurring processes in the marijuana plant, similar to those found in other plants like lavender and its proven anti-anxiety qualities.

"It's the blend of all these things working together in concert that deliver the relief and pain management of the different flowers," Miller said. "It's a much safer alternative to opioid pain medications, because it's natural and is a naturally occuring process. You have a naturally-occurring endo-cannabinoid system in your body that receives the receptors from the cannabis plant and that's why it works so well for people."

Eugene Monroe, a retired professional football player, spoke to the crowd Thursday morning about the effectiveness of medical cannabis in his life.

Monroe, who played seven season as an offensive tackle in the National Football League for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens, suffered numerous injuries to his knees, shoulders, ligaments and even his head with multiple concussions.

He could not take medical cannabis as an active player, he said, so he was continually fed anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals and opioid medications to help him deal with the pain.

"Since my first knee surgery in 2006, I'd been on a steady course of anti-inflammatory drugs and intermittently taking opioid drugs to deal with pain," Monroe said.

But he said he took the time to research more natural healing methods and came across medical cannabis.

"I was able to learn as much as I could about it," Monroe said. "I took time learning about not only the benefits of medical cannabis, but also the industry and what it took to get up and running efficiently with high quality medicines in lieu of pharmaceutical drugs that have dangerous side effects."

What Monroe concluded was that access to these medicinal products was key to helping people who suffered from an array of chronic health conditions.

"Through that process I also understood that in order to get access to medical cannabis, there has to be a business that brings it to any given city that has a patient base that needs to be served," he said.

His research led him to GTI, serving patient populations in Illinois.

"I had an opportunity to see their operation, meet the team, and get to know who they really were," he said.

Monroe said he was most impressed by the care the company provided to its customers.

"They really are patient-first, as opposed to profit-first," he said. "It was interesting to see the great care that they took in delivering for the patients. So I started to ally myself with them."

Monroe said his own personal use of medical cannabis products has delivered positive results for all of his aches and pains.

"Since I stopped playing football, I've been able to consume cannabis to deal with some of the things I used to take pills for," he said. "I don't need to take any of those drugs anymore. I've been able to eliminate all of those issues that I've had. It's really been incredible to benefit from the things I've studied for so long."

From cancer to AIDS, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, migraine headaches and stomach conditions, all have shown to derive benefits from medical cannabis, Miller said.

Currently, there are no prescriptions for medical cannabis, she said, but patients can obtain their medicine through a process that includes a physician statement of medical benefit or necessity, and registration through the state of Nevada as a medical cannabis card holder.

"Those cards have to be presented in the store, so there is proof that you are able to be inside," she said. "It's one of the reasons why we are having this open house today, so that folks who may be curious and don't have a card can become informed."

For visitors to the Silver State, Nevada also provides for reciprocity, Miller said, meaning a person registered as a medical cannabis card holder in another state can obtain their medical cannabis at the Rise Dispensary.

At present, medical cannabis is also not covered by insurance plans, Miller said, because of the substance's legal status with the federal government.

"It's something that still needs to be solved," she said. "Because it's still federally illegal, there's all of those nuances to affording community access that need to be worked out."

Once opened to the public, dispensary hours will be Tuesday through Friday, noon to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., said Miller. The facility will be closed Mondays.

Visit the Green Thumb Industries hereweb site for more information about the company's medicinal cannabis products, or find Rise Dispensaries on Facebook here.