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Warren supports medical marijuana

Council accepts local’s bid as potential processor

WARREN — City Council unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday supporting Mahoning Valley Manufacturer LLC’s application to the Ohio Department of Commerce to become a medical marijuana processor.

Thomas R. Ryan is its chief operating officer, Thomas J. Ryan is the chief financial officer and James Black is it chief operating officer.

There will be 40 processing licenses distributed across the state. The application deadline is Friday, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce website.

The processor application fee is $10,000 and the certificate of operation fee is $90,000; a processor annual license renewal fee is $100,000.

Black said they will have 20 employees, recruited from area colleges, who be paid $15 per hour.

“Security around the facility will be on par with area jails, with multiple fences, surveillance cameras and double entry door areas in which one door will not open unless the first door is completely closed,” Black said.

It will have redundant electronic systems. The facility will be at 809 E. Market St., which is near the railroad tracks east of Chestnut Avenue NE.

If awarded the license, the company’s initial investment will be $1.1 million. They expect revenues of $4.3 million in the first year and between $8 to $10 million per year in subsequent years.

As the processor, Mahoning Valley Manufacturer LLC would take the plants grown by the cultivators and develop them into the medical marijuana drugs.

“When we are done with the processing of the flowers, there will be nothing left but mulch,” Black said.

Black described himself as a consultant who has developed the processing techniques in other states, including Maine, Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Oregon, among others.

“We are taking everything we’ve learned in those other locations to make a more efficient process here,” he said.

Black emphasized the medical marijuana that will be developed in the Warren will not get patients high, but will be used to relieve pain.

“Our patients primarily will be people who are our grandparents age,” he said. “They will be prescribed very low dosages by their physicians. This will be used to improved the quality of their lives.”

The medical marijuana will be in the form of creams and topicals, mists and cartomizers.

Thomas R. Ryan said they selected Warren because it has all of the logistics the company requires to operate. Councilman John Brown, D-3rd Ward, who sponsored the legislation, described them as a legitimate manufacturer.

“I spent the whole day with them when they came into town,” Brown said. “Medical marijuana is the law of the land. They are good people.”

Councilman Eugene Mach, D-7th Ward, said he is supportive of this resolution because it is just a processing facility.

“They told us (council) about the extreme measures they plan to go through as far as security,” Mach said. “It is bringing revenue in the city and we should not turn away new revenue.”

Councilman Eddie Colbert, D-at large, said providing support of this operation is following the support council and the administration has given to Herb Washington for a dispensary being placed in the city.

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