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Texas' largest medical cannabis facility opens in Bastrop
The state’s largest medical cannabis facility is now open in Bastrop. Texas Original's new facility is nearly 10 times the size of their existing headquarters.
AUSTIN, Texas - The state’s largest medical cannabis facility is now open in Bastrop.
Texas Original's new facility is nearly 10 times the size of their existing headquarters.
It all happens under one roof, from growing the plant to extracting the oils to testing and packaging. From seedling to store shelf, every step happens under one roof.
Texas Original's new facility
The backstory:
The 75,000 square foot facility handles cultivation, extraction, testing, packaging, and distribution all in one place.
"We have to do everything from growing the plant, so starting with a biological entity all the way through extraction, manufacturing, and then we test the product, and then it goes through distribution all under one roof," said Nico Richardson, CEO of Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation.
Texas Original CEO Nico Richardson says the facility on FM 969 can hold up to 20 times more capacity than its former South Austin location.
It includes a hybrid greenhouse for plant cultivation, manufacturing labs for extraction, processing and refining, testing labs, packaging, dispensing, distribution, and delivery logistics.
"This facility was really designed for a future state of Texas where we had much broader access to medical cannabis," said Richardson.
Dig deeper:
Its opening comes as Texas expands its Compassionate Use Program (CUP) after the passage of House Bill 46 during the regular session.
The passage broadens who can qualify and allows for more medical cannabis products.
"We have huge room to grow here. HB 46 will take us a long way towards realizing that growth. We’re now able to provide products that a lot of patients thought were missing from the program," said Richardson.
The TCUP program first began in 2015 and has since expanded.
"It was really for pediatric patients with epilepsy, and we were serving high CBD products. We’ve grown this program ever since to issue new products to new patients," Richardson said.
Texas Original was one of the state's first licensed providers and says the demand will continue to grow, only increasing the need for a facility like this one.
"We have a lot of runways to run on here, so it’s really just filling out this facility and turning on capacity as the program continues to run," said Richardson.
So far, nine conditional licenses have been awarded and three more are expected in April.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's Jenna King