March 2, 2016

The Alpha Foliage nursery and its medical franchise, Surterra Therapeutics, have been granted permission from the Florida Department of Health to cultivate medical marijuana, and have been given 210 days to make its products available to customer-patients, according to WUFT.org.

Medical marijuana is not allowed to be inhaled per Department of Health regulations, therefore, Surterra, which is the branding and business arm of the company is planning to make medical marijuana products in capsule form, tinctures, sprays, and topical creams. Once the company receives feedback from its customers, there are plans to expand the variety of delivery methods.

This is the first venture into medical marijuana for Surterra, which along with Alpha Foliage is applying best practices along every step of production in their operation.

The company is employing a state-of-the-art indoor production facility to cultivate the plants with separate areas for plants determined by their rate of growth and life cycle, along with extraction and quality control facilities where the extraction of the oil will be conducted under cleanroom conditions to protect the process from outside contaminants and pollutants.

Two cultivation centers are set to begin operations, and its first store is set to open in Tampa by June reports WUFT, however the company is planning to invest $13.5 million into the state of Florida with plans to expand to more than a total of 15 cultivation centers and Surterra stores in Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami, according to Capital Soup.