Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016
THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS • THE COMMERCE NEWS
PAGE 7A
Special Report
Dried buds
These buds from a strain of medical cannabis
have been harvested and dried and are waiting to
have their resins extracted to make the final liquid
compound.
Extractor
This machine is a small testing extractor used to
get the chemical compounds from the dried buds.
The buds are put into the extractor where high
pressure C02 is flushed through them, removing
the medical compounds. LeafLine was installing
a larger main extractor when I was there, but had
this smaller one used for testing still operating.
Checking the output
Dr. Andrew Bachman looks at a tube of liquid that
has been extracted from the cannabis buds. The
composition of the final liquid depends on the
strain of plant it came from and its growing con
ditions.
Medical cannibis products
After the compounds are extracted, they are ready
to dispense. They can be dispensed to patients as
pills, a liquid spray or eyedropper style, or as an
inhaled vapor. LeafLine Labs makes three basic
medical drugs with different ratios of THC to CBD.
Which one is used and how it is dispensed is
determined by the firm’s pharmacist.
Ready to destroy
These are unused branches from cannabis plants
that are ready to be destroyed. LeafLine Labs has
the unused parts of the plant, mainly the limbs and
stems, ground into mulch. The rootballs are also
destroyed.
Dispensary for medical cannabis
This low-key office building in Eagan, MN, is one cannabis products. It’s attached to a children’s ther-
of the first places in that state to dispense medical apy center just off a main street in the community.
From manufacturing to patient,
dispensing medical cannabis
TWO COMPOUNDS THE MAIN FOCUS
For much of today's medical cannabis production,
the focus is mainly on just two of the hundreds of
compounds found in cannabis — THC and CBD.
The mix and ratio of those compounds forms the
backbone of the medical cannabis industry.
For the most part, medical cannabis today produc
es three basic products: high THC to low CBD oil
ratios; equal THC to CBD ratios; and high CBD to
low THC ratio.
Each product serves a special medical need. For
example, most seizure patients use medical cannabis
oil with a high CBD to THC ratio while pain patients
typically use the opposite.
There are some other important compounds in
cannabis that are just starting to be used, such as
THCa which doesn't cause a high, but is sometimes
found to be effective for seizure control.
BY MIKE
BUFFINGTON
CO-PUBLISHER
EAGAN MN — Eagan,
Minnesota is about as subur
ban-America as you will find
anywhere in the nation.
Located due south of St.
Paul and a 20 minutes drive
west from Cottage Grove,
Eagan is a middle class com
munity of about 64,000 peo
ple who work in the greater
Twin Cities area. It’s bisected
by I-35E, which flows north
into the heart of urban St.
Paul.
It wasn’t always a suburb.
At one time, Eagan was an
Irish farming community, the
"Onion Capital of the U.S.’’
On a small hill, the commu
nity has preserved its 1914
wood-frame town hall build
ing.
Today, you will find all
the stereotypical suburban
landmarks — Target, Kohls,
Walmart and all the look-
alike shopping centers and
restaurants found in any
American suburb. Just a few
miles up the road stands the
famous Mall of America,
one of the state’s top tourist
attractions.
Eagan is geographically,
socially and culturally Middle
America in many ways. As
if to make that point, the
community is bisected by
"Yankee Doodle Road.”
Today Eagan has another
distinction as one of the first
places in Minnesota to have a
medical marijuana dispensa
ry. It was here that LeafLine
Labs located the first of its
four locations to deliver med
ical cannabis to qualifying
patients (the other three loca
tions are slated to open later
this year.)
But if you didn’t know
exactly where it was, you’d
never know medical cannabis
is being dispensed in Eagan.
Located discretely in a
brown stucco and rock suite
next to a children's thera
py center, LeafLine Labs
dispensary from the outside
could be just another small
town insurance office.
Many people I spoke
with here didn't seem to
know much about it, either.
The young cashier at a
McDonald's located a couple
of miles away said she didn’t
know anything about it as she
poured my coffee.
The desk clerk at my near
by motel said he’d heard of
the new state law and that he
had a cousin who used med
ical cannabis for an ailment,
but other than that he didn’t
know any details.
“I’ve never used the stuff
myself,” he said of recreation
or medical marijuana.
POLICE DEPARTMENT
Because Georgia law
enforcement officials put
heavy pressure on state leg
islators this year to kill a
proposal to allow in-state
cultivation and dispensing of
medical cannabis, my first
stop in Eagan was the local
police department to see if
the community had had prob
lems with the dispensary, or
medical marijuana.
The public information
officer I spoke with said
that so far, the clinic hadn’t
reported any problems, nor
has it affected the commu
nity. He pointed out that the
medical cannabis products
aren't smokeable and that the
oil and pills are very expen
sive compared to the price of
street marijuana.
“We've had no major prob
lems with it,” he said of the
dispensary.
As a courtesy, he ran me a
call report for the dispensa
ry’s address. There were sev
eral calls to the site for false
alarms, two for suspicious
people or vehicles (one of
those turned out to be people
mowing grass next door) and
one for someone dumping
trash in the firm’s dumpster.
No chug incidents or similar
problems had been reported
since the clinic opened last
year.
INSIDE CONTROLLED
The Eagan cannabis dis
pensary is really just a spe
cialized pharmacy. Patients
make appointments to come
in and get their medica
tion, meeting one-on-one
with a licensed pharmacist
in a small consulting room
behind secured doors. In
fact, nobody can just walk in
the front door to the waiting
room without being buzzed
in by the front desk.
The pharmacy part of
the dispensary is contained
behind bulletproof glass and
Kevlar reinforced walls.
There are no visible pill bot
tles in the area as in most
regular pharmacies. Muted
tan and brown colors rein
force the discreet nature of
the business.
Dr. Bachman said the top
three categories for medical
use of cannabis so far have
been cancer, muscle spasms,
and seizures. Most of the
patients are adults between
30-60 years old.
The initial meeting
between the firm’s pharma
cist and a patient often takes
over an hour, Bachman said.
Depending on the individ
ual’s needs, the pharmacist
determines what specific kind
of medical cannabis is used
(out of three basic choices),
how the product is dispensed
(pill, eye-dropper or vape
pen) and the dosing amount.
Sometimes, the pharmacist
recommends a patient not
use cannabis products due to
conflicts with other chugs, or
other issues, Bachman said.
This summer, Minnesota
is adding “intractable pain”
to the list of approved uses
of cannabis oil and Bachman
expects the patient load to
grow.
As with LeafLine’s facto
ry, the clinic is also regular
ly inspected by the state’s
department of health.
Mike Buffington is
co-publisher of Minstreet
Newspapers, Inc. He can be
reached at mike@mainstreet-
news.com.
At the dispensary
Dr. Andrew Bachman, co-founder and CEO of LeafLine Labs,
discusses the upcoming day with one of his staff members in
the waiting area of the company’s dispensary in Eagan, Minn.
Patients have to make an appointment to get their cannabis
medications and the facility is under tight security that limits
access. The company is opening three other dispensaries later
this year.
Pharmacist at work
The cannabis products developed
by LeafLIine are dispensed by its
pharmacists. The area around the
pharmacy itself is surrounded by
a bullet-proof glass and reinforced
Kevlar walls.
