Cumberland could become home to one of only a handful of medical marijuana manufacturing facilities to be allowed in the state. On Tuesday night Cumberland City Council passed a resolution supporting Peak Harvest Health’s application for a medical marijuana manufacturing license. The group plans to build a state of the art facility in the Riverside Industrial Complex. In September the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission will be accepting applications for up to 15 medical marijuana manufacturing licenses. The licenses are then expected to be issued at the end of this year or early next year. According to Chief Executive Officer of PHH Ethan Ruby if they are awarded one of those licenses PHH would create a highly secure facility where they would grow medical cannabis. He says he believes medical marijuana is extremely important. 14 years ago he was walking through an intersection at a crosswalk when a driver ran a red light and he was struck by two vehicles. Ruby has been confined to a wheelchair ever since. He says “medical cannabis was suggested to me a few years into my recovery and I have had a positive result with the medication and I take it as my life’s work now to bring this medicine safely, effectively to other patients, to other doctors to other health care providers.” Kevin Gibbs one of the principles of PHH says they chose Cumberland as the location for this facility for a variety of reasons. “When we initially began the search for a location we went all around the state and we visited with probably 15 or 20 cities and counties. When we came to Cumberland we recognized that there were some important characteristics that differentiated this city from the other locations that we were looking at. They had a very strong workforce, a very loyal workforce the retention rate is very high for the businesses in Cumberland, industrial base industrial manufacturing history, great university system in close proximity and then enormous political support.” Both Ruby and Gibbs say medical, political and law enforcement officials have been supportive throughout the process so far. Ruby says they are very confident that they can deliver safe and effective medicine. He says this is an awesome responsibility that is about to be entrusted to 15 producers to make medicine and he takes responsibility very seriously. The plans for the new facility would include an investment of millions of dollars and has the potential to add about 100 jobs over the next several years.
