CULLMAN, Ala. — From the outside, it appears to be another one of over 1,500 farms in Cullman County, with a couple of facilities and a structure that will eventually serve as a greenhouse. The front office looks — and smells — like any other office space, with their current hemp-derived products on display and a couple of private offices behind a conference table.
But when Joey Robertson, CEO and president of Wagon Trail Med-Serv and a managing partner at Wagon Trail Hemp Farms, opens a door behind the front office, an herbal and skunky smell blows out, strong enough to leave one’s senses feeling overwhelmed.
That’s where Robertson produces hemp-derived products like gummies, which he has been doing since 2019.
“It’s been essentially the exact fall-in-line with what we’re going to be doing on medical, minus some infrastructure improvements and a bigger fence, so we’re already ready to roll,” Robertson said during a tour of his facility last month.
The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission awarded Robertson an integrated facility license in 2023, meaning he can grow, process and sell products under one license. But Alabama’s medical cannabis program, approved by the Legislature in 2021, remains stalled, meaning Robertson has multimillion-dollar machinery sitting idly.