The company has a mission to “help people through the goodness of cannabis,” says Ariane Kirkpatrick CEO of Harvest of Ohio.
“Usually I am always talking, I have a lot to say. Today I am speechless,” said Kirkpatrick, who grew emotional during her comments. “Today I just thank God, and I really praise my parents, for providing the audacity of hope, the audacity of faith, the audacity of ability to be able to do this. Without that foundation, I wouldn’t have been able to. I’m very proud to bring my business here, and we want to implant ourselves as part of the community.”
A serial entrepreneur, Kirkpatrick is also owner and president of the AKA Team, a construction firm in Cleveland.
“I’m in construction, and I build buildings. I’m in medical marijuana and I build people. I build people’s quality of life, and I look at it the same way,” she said.
Kirkpatrick is the first owner of a vertically-integrated cannabis company in Ohio, and is the first black woman licensed to grow and dispense medical marijuana by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy. Kirkpatrick is one of only two black dispensary owners in the state.
Harvest of Ohio is a vertically integrated marijuana business, meaning it controls all aspects of production from cultivation to sale. The company operates other locations in Athens and Columbus, and a cultivating and processing center in Ironton that started growing cannabis crops in June.
“It’s a dream that I really did not think was going to actually happen,” Kirkpatrick said. “But I decided not to give up, I decided to keep fighting, because I felt I had a place in this business and that I can bring a lot - a lot - to the patients in the community.”
Over 50% of Harvest of Ohio’s employees are minorities or people of color. Since opening first in Columbus in August, Harvest of Ohio has served over 3,000 patients.
Bringing the business to Beavercreek was a three-year process, Kirkpatrick said. Harvest of Ohio’s three dispensary licenses are the last of 57 licenses granted by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy and the company is the third medical marijuana dispensary in Greene County.
Beavercreek mayor Bob Stone and vice mayor Don Adams congratulated Kirkpatrick on her grand opening.
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