Inside Oberlin’s Ascension BioMedical cannabis facility, the air is thick and humid.
Workers dressed in scrubs and hairnets pass through the maze that connects different rooms of the operation. In one, the sprouting clones from the mother plant. In another, workers brush away the stems from the cannabis buds that will later be used by customers.
A key piece to the whole operation is to keep it all sanitized, said Fadi G. Boumitri, CEO of Ascension BioMedical.
“It’s much more scientific, much more sophisticated than most people realize,” Boumitri said.
Another key element of the business is its goal for expansion, Boumitri said.
Ascension BioMedical is expected to dramatically increase its size of operations in the coming years. However, Boumitri said concerns of proposed legislation changing how cannabis is regulated have halted construction of the facility’s expansion.
Specifically, Boumitri said Ohio Senate Bill 56 “would severely hinder the program” if it were passed into law.
Throughout the current facility, a medley of robust, earthy smells permeate the air.
“Motor Cake, Wake ‘n Cake, Dark Krystal, my personal favorite … Sweet Skunk,” Boumitri said as he ran down a list of the different iterations of cannabis grown. “What you’re generally going to smell is terpenes.”
It’s here where nearly 30 strains of cannabis are grown and cultivated. From seeds to clones, buds to — eventually — the customer, this cannabis will take months to reach the market, Boumitri said.
“It’s a long process,” he said. “You could expect that a change that I make today to show up six to eight months later.”
Cannabis, also known as marijuana, weed and pot, was legalized for medical uses in Ohio in 2016. In November 2023, Ohioans voted to approve recreational use of the substance via a ballot measure.
“And then adult-use passes, it changes everything,” Boumitri said. “Now we go from 170,000 possible patients to millions of potential users.”
Ascension BioMedical is one of the 37 sites throughout the state certified to cultivate cannabis for both medical and recreational use, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce.
While the Oberlin facility may currently be smaller than others, Boumitri said that their growing practices differentiate them from other cultivators in the state.
“We are your local farmer,” Boumitri said. “We are one of Ohio’s only cultivators that does grow the plant indoors without the use of pesticides, radiation or remediation. … That’s what we pride ourselves on.”
As he stood in one of the largest rooms of the Ascension BioMedical facility, where double stacked rows of maturing plants enjoyed precise climate controlled conditions, Boumitri contemplated the company’s future.
Beyond the walls of the existing facility lies the frame of a two-story, 28,000-square-foot expansion. Once complete, that space will look more like the room Boumitri was standing in, he said.
“Each room will look exactly like this,” Boumitri said as he walked by the rows of plants. “We’re going from 15 employees a year ago to 60 a year from now. That’s why there’s a tremendous amount of difference. … We’re getting higher quality flower than we’ve ever gotten before thanks to that new room, and that is the prototype for the full expansion that we’re doing.”
With the addition of space comes an increased ability to harvest more cannabis, Boumitri explained — a sevenfold increase of production.
“This room will be harvested all at once, and then the next room like it will be harvested a week later,” he said. “So you’ll have a harvest every week. Right now, we’re too small for that, it’s a harvest every three weeks.”
Ascension BioMedical’s expansion was greenlit by the Oberlin City Council in May 2024 after it approved a 10-year, 75-percent tax abatement, according to city records.
While it will receive the tax abatement, Ascension BioMedical is expected to hire at least an additional 40 full-time employees to its operation.
Boumitri said that the full-time positions will begin at a pay rate of “$15, $16, and then you’ve got everything up to six figures.”
The expansion of space and jobs is expected to result in an addition of $1.8 million to the company’s payroll, the Oberlin city document stated.
“It only makes sense for us to hire from the local,” Boumitri said. “It’s not like we need specialty people from Oregon or California that know what they’re doing. … The majority of my employees live in either Elyria, Oberlin, Lorain.”
According to the tax abatement document, Ascension BioMedical is estimated to invest up to $13.5 million in upgrades to the facility and its equipment.
“I’ve put everything into it at this point,” Boumitri said. “I very much believe in what this could be, but at the same time, it is very dependent on what the Legislature does.”
While recreational use of cannabis has been legal in Ohio for less than two years, Boumitri said that legislative proposals in the state General Assembly could alter plans for the future.
Earlier this year, both the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives unveiled pieces of legislation that aimed to change certain pieces of legal medical and recreational cannabis use, including a reduction in allowable levels of THC and home-growth restrictions.
In his proposed budget, Gov. Mike DeWine suggested raising the tax on marijuana from 10 percent to 20 percent.
“When the initial bill that the Senate rolled out that doubled the taxes and made a whole bunch of what seems really minor adjustments but would have shut down my building, since that time, we’ve stopped construction,” Boumitri said. “We’re waiting to make sure that they don’t pass that bill, because I’m not going to spend $16 million on an expansion to then just go bankrupt.”
Since its opening, the Oberlin cultivator has been selling its product to other dispensaries. In May, Ascension BioMedical plans to open its first dispensary in Seven Hills in Cuyahoga County.
“It’s a lifeline to us, more than anything,” Boumitri said. “Without the expansion, we’re doomed to die.".