WILMINGTON – A Massachusetts-based company has acquired Delaware’s first medical marijuana manufacturer – First State Compassion (FSC).
FSC currently has two medical marijuana dispensary locations – one each in Wilmington and Lewes – as well as cultivation and processing facilities.
It was a dream partnership for now former FSC president and CEO Mark Lally and MariMed CEO John Levine. Lally, who is now the general manager for MariMed and its FSC locations, said working with Levine over the past decade made the acquisition easier.
The pair have worked together since 2014 with Levine even coming to Delaware to support Lally during FSC’s opening day.
“The reason I got into this was to help people everyday through the use of cannabis, and I was able to do that on opening day. I was able to step up to the register during opening ceremonies and help someone take a break. The first gentleman who came up to me was in a wheelchair and he told me that this was so exciting because we brought safety to them in terms of the fact that he could buy his medicines without having to worry about getting rolled literally. That brings tears to anybody’s eyes,” Levine explained.
Continuing the growth of his business, and now that of Lally’s empire in Delaware which was also the first seed-to-sale operation in the state, now brings both men even more joy.
“We’ve been working together since day one, over ten years. I’m very excited to call Mark my brother,” Levine told the Delaware Business Times.
Lally added that the partnership has been helpful in getting into the industry and he is looking forward to growing it even more.
“We were able to listen to their advice and develop our centers and facilities based on what they already learned. We’re not reinventing the wheel now. When somebody’s already got a good wheel and it’s turning, you want to do the same thing. That’s kind of how it was, it’s pretty simple. They made it pretty simple,” Lally said.
As the recreational adult-use cannabis industry continues to grow in Delaware, Lally and Levine both said they hope to share what they’ve learned with social equity licensees in Delaware as a way of giving back.
