By Cole Lauterbach/Illinois Radio Network
DELAVAN – The state’s largest grower of medical cannabis says its business is only 25 percent operational because there aren’t enough patients allowed in the state program to meet potential supply.
Just outside Delavan, lies a massive pole barn hosting armored trucks and armed guards. They’re hauling the harvest of Revolution Enterprises, the largest provider of medical marijuana and other products meant for patients that qualify for the state’s medical cannabis pilot program. They also operate from another warehouse 30 miles south of Quincy.
Right now, their principal owners say business is steady, but CEO Mark De Souza said that he could more than double his workforce to 200 employees if the state agencies were to expand the list of conditions in the program. Today, Revolution creates enough product to support between 9,000 and 10,000 customers, a quarter of its potential capacity.
The state’s pilot program currently accepts patients with one of 40 different maladies ranging from HIV/Aids to the most recently added Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Medicinal cannabis advocates say that the conditions that would open up the program to the most new patients, like chronic pain, have been excluded.
De Souza said the state would also benefit from the tax revenue the economic prosperity would bring without raising other taxes.
“This would be a new source of tax revenue getting to Springfield without affecting taxpayers in current forms,” he said.
Colorado earned more tax revenue from its flourishing recreational and medicinal marijuana industry than it did from total alcohol tax revenues over a 12-month stretch ending last summer.
De Souza’s quick to say they are happy to cooperate with the agencies and respect their decision to take their time in expanding the pilot program. Unlike the state’s dispensaries that are managed by the Illinois Department of Public Health, Revolution is regulated by the Department of Agriculture. The company has no contact with patients and cannot lawfully market its multitude of products to customers.
De Souza said this complex governmental structure of regulation can be cumbersome to a business. Recently, the department of Public Health has been sued to allow more conditions in the program by patients saying they’re being wrongfully kept out.
“We would like them to have the ability to (expand), but the market is still growing today,” said COO Dustin Shroyer. “There is an initial period of patient accrual and it’s going to take a little time, but it can grow exponentially.”
Both De Souza and Shroyer made comparisons between their business and a traditional agribusiness. Their general manager is a local corn farmer. When asked about the potential for export out of the state, de Souza said it would be a game changer.
“It there comes a time that Illinois could negotiate a reciprocal arrangement with other states on a dispensary level, what that would be, as a revenue impact to Illinois in net agribusiness export, would be monstrous,” he said. “It would be in the tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Supporters of medical marijuana say it has real health benefits that fight a host of maladies ranging from sleeplessness to glaucoma. It is also touted as a non-addictive alternative to opioids in the management of pain. Detractors minimize many of the medicinal benefits and label the plant as a gateway to other, more serious drugs.
