Quest Wellness Gets Medical Marijuana Processor License

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – By next year, the city could have a fully integrated network of medical marijuana operations, including a cultivation site, a processing business and a dispensary.

Quest Wellness Ohio III LLC, a venture headed by local businessman Herb Washington, last month was awarded a provisional license to develop a processing center at 741 South Ave., according to data made available through the Ohio Department of Commerce Medical Marijuana Program.

The 13,000-square-foot building would be converted into a site that processes medical marijuana into products such as edibles, tinctures and oils and then sold to dispensaries across the state.

The state accepted applications for processor licenses between Dec. 4, 2017 and Dec. 15, 2017 and received 104 applications. It is authorized to approve a total of 40 processor licenses.

As of Feb. 20, the state had awarded 38 provisional licenses over two rounds.  According to the state, Quest Wellness scored a 171.8 on its application and was awarded a provisional license for a processor on Jan. 16, ranking it 14^thoverall.

Should Quest Wellness’ processing center come to fruition, it would mean an entire network of medical marijuana manufacturing and distribution would be operating within the city.

Quest Wellness Ohio III LLC is developing this South Avenue building as a processing center for medical marijuana.

On Feb. 14, Riviera Creek LLC in Youngstown successfully harvested its first crop of medical marijuana from its cultivation center in the city’s Riverbend district.  The company grows and harvests its plants in Youngstown and is able to send cannabis flower to medical marijuana dispensaries.

Since no processing sites are operational yet, dispensaries are using flower shipped directly from the cultivation site that would allow patients to vaporize the plant for medical use.

Quest Wellness Ohio II, also led by Washington, last year was successful in obtaining a license for a medical marijuana dispensary and is renovating an existing building in the city to house that venture.

Workers were busy yesterday renovating a building at 4323 Market St., where Quest Wellness is building its new dispensary. 

Terrell Washington, director of business operations at Quest Wellness, said in November that the company planned to have the dispensary operating by early this year.

“They’re still shooting for March 15,” said David Roose of Strollo Architects Inc., Youngstown, the lead architect on the project. 

The design of the building consists of using a corrugated metal exterior along with a new canopy, Roose noted.

On Feb. 8, FarmaceuticalRX, based in Farrell, Pa., opened the first medical marijuana dispensary in the tri-county area in East Liverpool. The company has also obtained a provisional license for a processing center in the city.

As of Feb. 17, the state of Ohio reports that 126 pounds of medical marijuana had been sold across the state since sales officially commenced Jan. 16.  To date, total sales have brought in $947,056.