Marijuana company makes medical supply donations
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- A local marijuana dispensary and grower is helping out a local hospital during the COVID-19 health crisis. The marijuana industry is one of the few industries deemed to be essential during the crisis.
“We’re busy here," said Farmacy and Glass House Farms owner Graham Farrar. "We’re seeing the society is telling us that one of the things that they want with everything going on is cannabis. So while a lot of other folks are struggling, we’re still up here and running. And we want to do everything that we can to help out.”
Farmacy dispensary and Glass House Farms, both part of the same company, will donate 1,000 of the medical gowns they use for growing marijuana. They are also working with their suppliers to find extra masks that can also be available for Cottage Hospital.
“Knew some of the folks at Cottage and knew they were on the hunt for protective equipment donations and we started putting the pieces together and realized that some of the things we do at Glass House Farms are the same as what they do and can be a benefit,” said Farrar.
Inside the cannabis greenhouse, the farmers wear white disposable gowns when working with the plants to help prevent the spread of pests. A similar principle is used inside hospitals. They wear the disposable gowns to help prevent the spread of disease when interacting with different patients.
“We connected with the hospital and sent them photos of the lab coats, the gowns we have and the boxes they came in," said Farrar. "And they confirmed that they were useful and an appropriate fit for what they needed. So we dug through our inventory and grabbed everything we had and we’re dropping them off to them this afternoon.”
Farrar said it’s a time for the community to come together and help everyone. Since they have what’s needed and their business can support the donations they’re stepping up. They’re also stepping up by donating 5% of their local product sales to the food bank to help kids get free nutritious meals while schools are closed.
