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Mike Tyson’s Company to Grow Hemp in West Virginia

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[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]M[/dropcap]ike Tyson’s cannabis company Tyson Holistics is teaming up with Flemington, West Virginia-based Almost Heaven Agriculture to grow medicinal hemp at an already-existing greenhouse site. Tyson is also building a 40-acre cannabis resort called Tyson Ranch in California, but is expanding business into West Virginia.

The region is in dire need of economic rejuvenation, and hemp could be the answer. “We came in with the intent of acquiring as much land, or looking into co-opting on land. We need to get farmers educated to teach them how to grow at a higher rate, to grow at a more profitable rate for themselves, which [not] only helps them, it helps their families,” stated Rob Hickman, founder and CEO of Tyson Holistics.

The company is currently planning on utilizing a 350,000-square-foot site in Flemington in Taylor County, West Virginia. Interestingly, former lawmakers Mike Manypenny and Bill Flanagan own Almost Heaven Agriculture. Almost Heaven Agriculture already owns a one-acre greenhouse and is planning on building more.

While industrial hemp goes for $5 to $10 a pound, medicinal hemp goes for around $50 to $100 per pound. In California, Tyson’s company is growing cannabis, but the hemp they will grow in West Virginia has minimal amounts of THC.

Hemp oil and CBD are legal in West Virginia, but the state’s limited medical cannabis program is not yet operational. Only pills, oils, gels, creams, ointments, tinctures, liquid, and non-whole plant forms can be legally vaporized. According to WOWKTV, a banking issue may prevent the state’s medical cannabis program from ever materializing. Industrial hemp has been legal since 2002.

Tyson—over time—learned that medical cannabis could replace his indomitable addiction to opioids. After he underwent back surgery, he found medical cannabis can help with pain and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, without becoming physically addictive. “Mike believes in this product, this isn’t just some whim to make money,” Tyson Holistics COO Kevin Bell told the Charleston Gazette-Mail. “Mike wants to change the world.”

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