Marijuana Business Magazine March 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | March 2019 112 transactions, affiliate roll-up and recently completed acquisitions leading up to and following our listing on the CSE—gives us one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry,” Harvest President Steve Gutterman said in the news release. Funding MMJ Research In January 2014, Harvest formed a separate com- pany—the Medical Marijuana Research Institute—to contribute to the academic literature devoted to medical marijuana. Harvest is the subsidiary’s sole source of funding. “We created the separate entity because at the time we showed a dearth of cannabis research,” White said. He estimates Harvest has invested about $100,000 in research so far, and two researchers—a Ph.D. and a medical doctor—do the work voluntarily. More scientific research into the impact of MMJ could encourage additional doctors to recommend the medicine. The institute’s first study, published in 2015 in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, focused on the characteristics and experiences of medical marijuana patients in Arizona. “The original study was intended to form a basis for other people’s research,”White said. The popularity of vaping products prompted the company to examine the byproducts produced by vaporizing cannabis oil-cutting agents. The study, published in 2017 in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, showed that the agents commonly mixed with cannabis oil for vaping can also produce cancer-causing compounds when heated. “We’re contributing to the research about patient safety and helping guide best practices for formulating vape products,”White said. The Medical Marijuana Research Institute is building on its 2014 study of MMJ patients through its next research subject: insomnia. States typically don’t classify insomnia as a treatable condition for MMJ. Still, Harvest is undertaking the research because, in its first study, many MMJ patients reported success using cannabis as a sleep aid. White said the company hopes the insomnia study will reveal the characteristics in cannabis that help to create the most effective sleep aid. Harvest also uses the information gleaned from the research efforts to guide its own product development. “We take feedback from patients, and we try to cater some of our offerings to the feedback we get,” he said. “We share with others the feedback we get from people in hopes that others can learn from it.” Business Strategies | Cultivation Harvest owns more than 60 cannabis licenses with a domestic footprint that includes real estate, equipment and other assets in 12 states stretching from Florida and Maryland on the East Coast to California on the West Coast. Courtesy Photo Over the next year, Harvest plans to cultivate more than 720,000 square feet of indoor, outdoor and greenhouse cannabis. Courtesy Photo Founded in 2011, Harvest has an in-house construction team that meets daily to pore over plans for the facilities the company is building across the 12 states where it holds medical cannabis licenses. Courtesy Photo