The Reef DispensariesStrain of the Week is a special event.
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Over the past few years, states like California have made it easier to use marijuana.On Friday, there was a lot of attention paid to the fact that a new marijuana strain endorsed by the rapper was offered to West Hollywood photographers.With the election just days away, Wiz may be able to perform similar acts of charity in Las Vegas, without fear of breaking the law.
Nevada will be one of five states that will vote on the legalization of marijuana for recreational use.If the referendum passes, Nevada will join four other states and the District of Columbia where marijuana can be enjoyed recreationally without penalty.Tourists and convention-goers already descend upon Nevada to indulge in some of the state's other freedoms, such as gambling and prostitution, and they may soon be able to add smoking weed to that list.
Matthew Morgan is the founder of Tryke Companies, which does business in Las Vegas as Reef Dispensaries, one of the country's largest marijuana growth and distribution facilities.The 165,000 square foot compound is larger than a Sam's Club and shows an incredibly streamlined operation that includes the cultivation, production, and sale of marijuana products.In Nevada, there is no limit to how many marijuana plants can be housed under one roof, so Reef is one of the few establishments in the country where all of these processes happen at the same location.
Tryke is the exclusive manufacturer of the news-making strain of ganja known as K.K, which caused a bit of a stir at the top of this year.
The Pittsburgh rapper accidentally fired the first shot in his beef with West, who thought he was talking about his wife.After the dust had settled, it was clear that Wiz was only promoting his brand.He could not have asked for better publicity.
The Yeezus helped it a bit, but it has been floating around in Northern and Southern California for a while.Berner is a member of the Taylor Gang crew who has worked with Reef as a brand ambassador and product curator.
Berner says that he has a lot of knowledge of strains that grow well, branded strains and what would be considered comparable to what is on the market now.I looked at a bunch of the strains they had in Las Vegas and put together a nice menu.
The storefront side of Reef Dispensaries contains a small, wooden-table-filled room no bigger than a studio apartment, with everything from edibles to the exclusive dispensary sale of Berner's Cookies clothing line.The public doesn't see what the United States government still refers to as "millions of dollars of untouched product."
Matthew Morgan got his start in the bud business after getting out of the real estate game.The state reversed its marijuana laws in 2012 and forced him to shut his business down early.One of the largest weed dispensary in the country was started by him that same year.Tryke Companies and Reef Dispensaries were created by a private investor from Florida.There are five retail locations in Nevada and Arizona.
The last eight years of trial and error led to the massive Reef Dispensaries building in Vegas, a structure filled with several security checkpoints and a handful of the company's 60 employees dressed in surgical garments, gloves, masks, and hairnets.
Employees have to change into scrubs and shower before going to work.These measures are taken to keep out the common insects, like crickets and grasshoppers, as well as the more ominous conditions, such as leaf septoria and tobacco mosaic virus.
The life-cycle of a plant begins in the propagation room, where tiny sprout sit infertilizer, much like you would see at a nursery.Because it is still illegal to transport marijuana seeds or plants across state lines, in-house cloning is how Tryke reproduces the product, with over four to six thousand clones on site at any given time.
We have a large plant.Morgan explains that they removed the stigmata wall, put in a rooting hormone, and put it in ideal conditions.You have an identical clone from the plant you took it from seven to 12 days later.It takes the guess work out of it.You know what product you are going to get.
No matter how much you watch Narcos, there is a large yellow-lit room filled with marijuana plants as far as the eye can see.Morgan explains the growth process when he walks through that room.He says that you put a net in here to hold these up as they get bigger.They wouldn't get that large in Mother Nature, but we have created a perfect environment.
There are other things revealed in the compound.The plants only use 10 percent of the water they are fed, so there is a system that takes the unused liquid and feeds it back to them.The site uses about a quarter of what a typical casino uses, so there is no air conditioning.A centralized cooling system keeps the temperature cool.Plants get the best possible conditions to grow when giant gas tanks inject CO2 into each room.
The engineering brilliance of the operation is reminiscent of Walter White's underground car wash lab.Morgan and his team designed the facility from the ground up.
There is no one else who can mimic or emulate.He says that they had to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together.I have many examples to go off of if I wanted to start a casino.I didn't have anyone to look for.We brought in architects, engineers, and other specialists because I have specialists in almost every area in-house.We have engineers, architects, or whoever tries to make those needs happen after scientists say what they need.
A few hundred bins line a series of shelves in the cure room.It's possible to fill a gumball machine with about a thousand nuggets of weed.
The home base of Reef Dispensaries has alarm buttons for fire, police, and paramedics.There is a K9 unit and round-the-clock security.
I have never had a security issue in the last eight years.Morgan says that they take a lot of security protocols and measures to keep their employees safe, as well as make sure there is no product running outside the front door.
Safety isn't the only concern for him.There is also the law.For the past decade, marijuana has been legal for medical use in Nevada.Reef, Euphoria, and Medizin have sprouted up across the state in hopes that the Election Day referendum will open up a new market for them.
10 years ago, a law was put in place to help patients gain access to medical cannabis, but there was no legal way to get it.Nevada looked at all of the other programs and how well they were doing and felt like they could implement something like that using the gaming model.
Nevada has jumped on board with the new laws.Everyone who lives in or visits Vegas with a medical card can now enjoy KK.
Marijuana was re-classified as a Schedule I controlled substance by the federal government at the top of August, leaving it in the same class as heroin and cocaine.Despite this moment of reefer madness, Morgan is confident that cannabis will be legalized for recreational use on a state level in Nevada after November's vote, with a recent Las Vegas Sun poll showing that 57% of likely voters are in favor of the idea.
The shift in public perception is something you have to remember.Over 50 percent of Americans would like to see marijuana legalized.That will have a huge impact on how law enforcement and others act.He pointed out the racial disparity in the enforcement of marijuana laws and said it was crazy to throw someone in jail over a plant.Black people to white people are more likely to be arrested for marijuana sales.It is racial profiling.It is very unfortunate.We need to get away from that.
Berner says that recreational weed needs to happen in Nevada.It will bring a lot of money for things that are not getting the funding they need.Nevada needs to get rid of the weed.
Some of the highest paying jobs in the city don't require anything more than a G.E.D., so it makes sense that the state is dead last in education.Some of the money spent on possession arrests and imprisonment could be used to improve the school system.