Virginia’s Cannabis Control Authority recently announced a new accredited physician training program for providers who want to better advise their patients on the safe use of cannabis related products. But how are those products made? WMRA’s Sara Prince toured a state-regulated dispensary to find out, and filed this report.

TRENT WOLOVEK: So just heel in first, then pull back really fast.

That’s Trent Wolovek, CEO of Jushi Holdings, which owns and operates several Virginia dispensaries. This one, in Manassas, is currently one of the two closest to the WMRA listening region. Trent is walking me through the “cultivation corridor,” which is the hallway at the heart of the operation. Each room shows a stage in the plant’s four-to-five-month life cycle.

WOLOVEK: And so, we start with what are called mothers. We’ll take clones and we'll propagate all those clones. That allows us to have what's called a perpetual harvest.

Plants bask in warm, light filled rooms with hundreds of fans providing ventilation.

WOLOVEK: We don't want hot spots in the room. That leads to yeast, mold, mildew. We don't want any of that. So these are getting 18 hours of light, six off.

Next up is the vegetation room where the focus is on developing the trichomes which house the feel-good medicinals of the plant - the cannabinoids and terpenes.

WOLOVEK: Terpenes are very, very, very finicky. They're not stable, like cannabinoids. And so, like anything goes wrong, those are like the first thing to go. … After about three to four weeks in there, we’ll move to what's called a flowering room.

The flowering room is cooler and less humid, with rows of plants lit from floor to near ceiling 12 hours a day for two months, which encourages the plant to start producing the flower with consistent results.

WOLOVEK: And good luck trying to do that outdoors. It ain’t ever raining in here, it ain’t ever windy in here. Like, if we have stress, it changes body chemistry and it’s why we’re such believers in indoor cultivation.