The Anita W Compassion Center
With the projected patient volume set, AWCC is forecasting sales of all medical marijuana products (flowers, oils, tinctures, and infused products) to be $1,072,017 in the first fiscal year. An additional $23,500 of revenue is anticipated with the sale of vaporizers. These projections are made with the following assumptions: patients will average two visits per month to the facility while spending an average of $65 per visit. The organization anticipates 30,340 patient visits during the first fiscal year that the facility will be open to licensed patients. As part of its commitment to providing free and reduced priced medicine to those with hardship, defined as anyone with income at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Level, AWCC is projecting that $39,442 of discounts or free medicine will be provided during the first fiscal year.
Operating expenses for the first fiscal year include payroll expenses for all personnel of $1,193,045. AWCC projects that 27 full-time equivalents are needed for its operation, including administrative staff, cultivation staff, dispensary staff, and security/office staff. The payroll expenses include both salary and fringe benefits for all employees. Other expenses for the initial operation include cultivation and sales consultants, packaging supplies, cultivation supplies, utilities for the dispensary and the cultivation facility, insurance (property, general liability, product liability, etc.), licensing fees and permits, rent, legal and accounting, and outside security and monitoring. The total for these other expenses is $2,475,978.
Along with the team at Sigal Consulting and the Slater Center, Mr. Waxman recruited Alex Liebster for the position of Director of Cultivation and MIP Production. Presently, Mr. Liebster is the Associate Director of Cultivation and Infused Products at the Slater Center. He has implemented cultivation procedures and protocols at the over 2,000 patient dispensary in Providence. He also developed a line of infused products at Slater adhering to all food safety and state regulations. He has significant experience in organic cultivation techniques and facility design, and is consulted regularly on cultivation facility design in RI, Maine, Colorado, and California.
Mr. Liebster was instrumental in developing the inventory controls and tracking at Slater. He is fully versed on the proposed tracldng systems for AWCC. He is trained in tracking products from "seed to sale." As an expert on infused products, he is also fully competent in issues relating to consistency of dose and creating a wide array of cannabis products for different ingestion methods.
Along with his real-world management experience in a nearby licensed dispensary, Mr. Liebster practices compassion for those who are faced with serious illnesses. He is a licensed caregiver in RI, providing high quality medical cannabis to patients suffering from HIVIAIDS, Cancer, MS, and Spastic Quadriplegia. His caregiver work forms the basis of his compassion for all patients, which he carries out in his daily work.
Provisions are in place to educate patients on the tremendous benefits offered by cannabis. Education and outreach will be done to show them ingestion methods other than smoking. A premium will be placed on non-smoking methods like tinctures, edible food products, and vaporization. The facility has also established a generous sliding scale program for free and reduced priced medicine for low income patients. AWCC recognizes its status as a not-for-profit organization, and the provision of free and reduced priced medicine is an important component of adhering to this mission
Director of Cultivation & MIP Production: Alex Liebster will serve as Director of Cultivation and MIP Production. His responsibilities include all cultivation of medical carmabis and oversight of MIP production protocols. The position also manages the following departments: Inventory, Trimming & Packing, and Quality Control/Quality Assurance. The position requires a deep understanding of organic growing techniques, infused product production techniques, and adherence to all state regulations. The Director reports directly to the COO.
proposed wages within the organization vary depending on job category and employment status. Non executive management positions are structured asfollows: Patients advocates are compensated at an hourly rate averaging $12 per hour depending on experience and skills. Processing associates are compensated at an hourly rate averaging $12 per hour. Cultivators are compensated at an hourly rate averaging $12 per hour. MIP production associates are compensated at an hourly rate averaging $12 per hour. Security officers are selected and trained by AWCC but compensated by a third-party private security firm. Registration/patient intake associates are compensated at an hourly rate averaging $12 per hour. Compensation for managers and team leaders varies by position and level of responsibility. AWCC is committed to hiring qualified personnel with appropriate skills to help the organization succeed. Managers and team leaders are compensated at an average hourly rate of $18 per hour depending on skill and level of responsibility. Compensation for executive managers will vary widely depending on positions and level of responsibility. AWCC plans to provide compensation to these executives in line with average salaries of existing not-for-profit organizations of similar size in Massachusetts.]
The organization recognizes that acquiring a base of initial patients is integral to the operation's success. AWCC has developed reasonable assumptions with clear monthly goals for patient counts. These counts impact revenues and expenses of the operation, and will be monitored daily by the leadership team and weekly at staff meetings. If volume is not in line projections, AWCC will undertalce enhanced outreach efforts and targeted marketing to potential patients. Ensuring that patient volume is met is a primary tenet of the year one operating plan.
[The Anita W. Compassion Center ("AWCC") has engaged as its cultivation consultants Sigal Consulting and the Slater Compassion Center in Providence, two organizations with extensive experience in dispensary operations and deep expertise in indoor cultivation. The Director of Cultivation at AWCC is Alex Liebster, the Associate Director of Cultivation at the Slater Center. The cultivation staff at the Slater Center in Providence, the first non-profit state licensed facility in RI, has over 50 years of combined experience in the cultivation of various strains of medical carmabis. These growers are well versed in many disciplines of cultivation, including soil grown, hydroponic, aeroponic and hydro- organic cultivation. AWCC will utilize Mr. Liebster's proven, cutting edge techniques and equipment to produce many strains of high quality medical cannabis in a clean, efficient marmer.
Through its Director of Cultivation and consulting partners, AWCC has access to a wealth of knowledge in design, build-out and management of high yield indoor gardens. The implementation of best practices coupled with high efficiency growing techniques will result in maximum yield per plant, reducing the need for extremely high plant counts and the consumption of resources and manpower associated with traditional large scale cultivation. Reducing the organization's carbon footprint, waste of resources, and additional labor costs associated with typical large scale cultivation translates into better efficiency and more affordable medicine for patients. Yields as high as one gram per watt of light are currently being achieved by Mr. Liebster at the Slater Center, resulting in more medicine from fewer plants. This, in turn, reduces the space needed for cultivation, producing savings on labor and utilities. It also ultimately leads to more efficient cultivation.
All medicine grown at AWCC will be grown utilizing organic fertilizers and pest control products. No toxic pesticides will ever be introduced to plants at the facility. Instead, OMRI certified, plant based products will be used to prevent crop failure due to the presence of garden pests such as spider mites, aphids, white flies, fungus gnats, etc. Pest control will be achieved by weekly application of omri
Utilizing proven cultivation techniques is the most important factor to ensure the quality and safety of medicine. Cannabis can be a suitable host for mold growth if grown in an environment that is conducive for mold to thrive. All cultivation rooms at AWCC will be climate controlled to prevent relative humidity from rising above 50%. Air conditioning and dehumidification will keep humidity levels stable at 50%. HEPA filters will be employed to remove airborne mold spores that could contact growing cannabis flowers and amplify through the ambient moisture in the air. These measures will prohibit mold growth on all growing plants.
AWCC believes that a patient's inability to pay should not prevent an individual from accessing quality medical marijuana. The organization has created a policy for providing care to patients faced with financial hardship that will serve as the focal point of its commitment to the larger community of licensed patients. With this guiding principle in place, AWCC will provide free or reduced cost medical marijuana to any registered patient with verified financial hardship as defined in 105 CMR 725 .004. AWCC will use a sliding fee scale based on federal poverty guidelines to assist patients that are recipients ofMassHealth or Supplemental Security Income, or if the individual's income does not exceed 300% ofthe federal poverty level, adjusted for family size. Patients who earn or receive 100% or less ofthe federal poverty level will qualify for a free eighth ofan ounce ofmedical marijuanana a week
Any amount acquired above the eighth of an ounce during a given week can be purchased at a 50% discount. Patients whose annual income falls in the range of 101%-200% of the federal poverty level will qualify for a 75% discount on an eighth of an ounce of medicine per week. Any amount acquired above the eighth of an ounce during a given week can be purchased at a 50% discount. Patients whose annual income falls in the range of201 %-300% will qualify for a 50% discount on an eighth of an ounce of medicine per week. Any amount acquired above the eighth of an ounce during a given week can be purchased at a 25% discount..
The threshold amount for free medicine was established at 1/8 of an ounce based on the experience of AWCC's consulting advisors. AWCC believes that this amount achieves an important balance between compassionate use and diversion prevention. lfthe organization were to provide larger quantities of medicine for free, the potential for abuse, specifically with patients diverting quantities of medicine to an illicit market for compensation, is heightened. In the interest of maintaining the lowest possible threshold for diversion and abuse, AWCC believes the provision for free weekly medicine of an eighth of an ounce is appropriate.]
