Somerville Marijuana Dispensary Making Hand Sanitizer

SOMERVILLE, MA — Somerville-based medical marijuana dispensary Revolutionary Clinics has started producing hand sanitizer at its cultivation facility in Fitchburg to donate to Massachusetts hospitals. The dispensary will donate the initial batch of 35 gallons Monday, March 30.

Revolutionary Clinics will continue its regular cannabis operations alongside and separately from the hand sanitizer production. This initiative is being carried out to support local health care clinicians' ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and is key component of a broader hand sanitizer partnership between the Commonwealth Dispensary Association (CDA), of which Revolutionary Clinics is a member, and the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA).

The coronavirus outbreak has created a shortage in the availability of medical supplies, including hand sanitizer. While the production of hand sanitizer is not overly sophisticated, the materials involved are expensive and it requires specialized equipment. Given the distillation processes that regularly happen at cannabis cultivation facilities, these operations are well-suited to produce hand sanitizer.

Department of Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel issued a public health emergency order March 23 that granted cannabis operators the authority to produce hand sanitizer for clinicians and health facilities.

"In a very difficult time for people across the globe, we felt it was incumbent upon us to step up and use our infrastructure and our know-how to support those who are on the front lines of fighting this pandemic, our health care workers," Keith Cooper, CEO of Revolutionary Clinics, said in a statement.

Production is being carried out by Lab Team members Stephen Golden, Danielle Desmond, David Nunes, Ryan Corrazini and Evan Lambert, under the supervision of lab manager and Vice President of Product Dan Gillan. Gillan estimates the facility can produce upwards of 200 gallons of hand sanitizer per week that can be fully donated to hospitals.

To facilitate production, Revolutionary Clinics applied the World Health Organization’s guidelines to its cannabis machinery and will fill five-gallon jugs so the hand sanitizer can be transported for use in hospitals. All ingredients were sourced and paid for by Revolutionary Clinics. Hand sanitizer inventory will be transported to Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency for distribution to individual hospitals.

Earlier this month, Revolutionary Clinics announced that it will donate two percent of all sales through April 20 to the Mayor's Disaster Relief Fund in Cambridge, which was activated to support residents affected by COVID-19. Revolutionary Clinics has three locations in Somerville and Cambridge.