Atlanta Braves great Andruw Jones is working on setting up a cannabis farm and extraction facility to produce low-dose THC oil in Georgia.
Fytiko Farms Georgia is co-owned by the Curaçao native, a centerfielder who won 10 straight Gold Glove awards, and local attorney Humberto Izquierdo Jr.
The company expects to receive a license by April 9 to begin producing medical cannabis at a site in Turner County, which straddles Interstate 75 in south Georgia between Albany and Fitzgerald.
The company has signed a letter of intent to lease-purchase the land; it would invest more than $10 million and create “dozens of jobs,” a spokesperson told Global Atlanta.
“We are ready to get to work growing, harvesting, processing and manufacturing high quality medical low-THC oil, and we will be honored to help extend medical cannabis in Georgia, and to do so as Georgians on behalf of Georgia,” Mr. Jones, who belted 434 home runs in his Major League career, including 368 for in 12 seasons with the Braves, said in a statement.
Georgia since 2015 has allowed patients with approved medical conditions to possess up to 20 fluid ounces of low THC oil, provided they register with the state government.
The Georgia’s Hope Act, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in April 2019, created the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission to regulate the production, transportation and purchase of low THC oil. Each business involved in the industry must be at least 20 percent minority-, woman- or veteran-owned.
Co-founded by Joe Dan Rogers, who also serves as the Georgia arm’s CEO, Fytiko Farms LLC already grows industrial hemp on 100 acres of a 400-acre farm in Oklahoma.
The company also has a lab in Calabasas, Calif., with a drug waiver from the Food and Drug Administration. Fytiko aims to be a vertically integrated operation, working on research and development with pharmaceutical companies and opening its extraction facilities to other farmers that convert acreage to cannabis cultivation.
Mr. Jones, also listed as chief marketing officer of the company, runs the AJ25 Foundation, which organizes events and after-school programs for underprivileged children, and Jaden Ladder, which assists survivors of domestic violence.
