56 HIGH TIMES I OCTOBER 2019
MOUNTAIN HIGH
We drove up the lower hills of Mauna
Kea (the tallest mountain in the world,
as measured from the ocean floor) on the
east side of the island, near Hilo, to the
35,000-square-foot facility. The building
was purpose-built, meaning it was spe-
cifically designed for growing cannabis in
the Hawaiian climate, effectively mitigat-
ing potential environmental and biologi-
cal pressures. It sits on a former 600-acre
banana farm that was once surrounded
by sugarcane fields, and it makes great
use of hydroelectric generation from
spring-fed river flumes that were origi-
nally built to get sugarcane down from
the mountains to the shore.
Repurposed to generate energy for the
cooling rooms that ripened the fruits, the
hydroelectric system now helps power
the massive indoor pot farm. There’s also
a 250-kilowatt biodiesel generator and a
solar farm in the permitting stages. Cows
and bulls graze around the perimeter to
keep back the fast-growing jungle and as
an added security layer.Big Island Grown’s pricing is purpose-
fully affordable, with $30 eighths and
$200 ounces available—practically half
the price found at other Hawaii dispen-
saries. The company aims to provide
reasonably priced, high-quality medicine
with a diversity of options, lab-tested for
pesticides, bacteria, mycotoxins, heavy
metals and residual solvents, with can-
nabinoids and terpenes plainly listed at
the shops. (There’s even a terpene wheel
at the dispensaries that allows patients
to enter the feeling and the flavor
they desire which then offers product
recommendations.)
According to Dr. Moore, when Big
Island Grown was awarded one of only
eight licenses in the state, it was seen
as a responsibility to execute the state’s
vision and to serve patients. “We spent
every dollar necessary to build a top-
notch, medically focused facility,” she
said, “because it is truly about providing
patients with clean, quality medicine.”
While some other dispensaries don’t sup-
port home growing, Dr. Moore said that
at Big Island Grown, “We support the
patients’ right to grow their own if they
choose. We want to eventually be able to
sell them clones and seeds, which is cur-
rently not allowable.”
Hawaiian medical-marijuana legalrequirements are very strict with compli-
ance testing, so producers have to have
total control over the grow climate to
avoid pests. Big Island Grown founder
and COO Dylan Shropshire, a fifth-gen-
eration farmer on Hawaii, understands
the difficulties of cultivating on the
Hamakua Coast, but specifically chose it
to be his home because of the need for
job opportunities since the shutdown of
local sugarcane plantations.
“Cultivating cannabis on the wind-
ward side of the Big Island of Hawaii,
from an integrated pest management
prospective, is one of the most difficult
places in the world to produce microbe-
free, clean, safe cannabis, without the
use of pesticides or inoculants,” explains
James Rushing, a plant and soil biolo-
gist. “Most mainland environments
experience periods of reduced pathogen
occurrence due to changes in the annual
climate. Here in Pepeekeo, we experience
regular temperatures of 82Ɇ (28Ʌ) with
an average 127 inches of rain a year. The
pathogen pressures are immense in this
area,” he explains.
After a delicious lunch at the Vibe Café
next door to the dispensary, Shropshire,
Rushing and I headed to the town of
Pepeekeo on the Hamakua Coast to tour
Big Island Grown’s cultivation center.The view of Big Island
Grown’s cultivation
facility from above.
Inset: Founder Dylan
Shropshire.