BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana State University’s planned medical marijuana growing operation doesn’t expect patients seeking the drug to have access until the summer of 2018, at the earliest.
Bill Richardson, LSU’s vice president for agriculture, led an AgCenter forum Friday to update the public, including potential contractors and business partners, about plans to start growing the medicinal plant. The room was packed, with more than 500 people signed up to attend.
“We’re really excited about the research part of this,” Richardson said. “It’s something that can be applied to other areas of agriculture.”
The university isn’t using state funds to produce medical marijuana. But it estimates that it will take at least $11 million to start up, so the AgCenter is looking for outside investors to contract with LSU.
Richardson said he hopes to put out the request for contracting proposals within a month. The AgCenter could choose one contractor or multiple contractors to help finance the operation and produce the medicinal product.
He warned that the operation won’t be a “cash cow that is going to generate a lot of income quickly.” In fact, a project concept released by the AgCenter estimates that expenses likely will be larger than income until at least 2020.
Richardson again assured the public he’s working on security plans for the planned facility in East Baton Rouge Parish, which won’t be on LSU’s campus. He said the AgCenter will be looking for an indoor warehouse facility to renovate, where everything will be done in the same place from growing and packaging to research and development.
