Just north of downtown Vicksburg lies a new industry in a retrofitted warehouse: Big River Cannabis company.
Owned by California transplant Phen Schlett and Jackson native Reed Nicholas, the large-scale cannabis cultivation facility is in its infancy while the company awaits the go-ahead from the state of Mississippi regarding the state’s certification and lab testing processes to legally sell medical cannabis.
Schlett said he hopes they’ll be in the distribution business by early spring of this year, and he and Nicholas are thankful for the opportunity to rehabilitate an existing structure in the area.
“We’ve been out there building since July (2022), so we’re hoping to be opening up and running sometime in March,” Schlett said. “A lot of the companies that started in Mississippi to go down this path to provide these medicines for the patients that need it, they’ve had to start from scratch. We’re very big into reuse and recycling and taking something and refurbishing instead of demolishing. We’re into revitalizing.”
Schlett said he is not a cannabis user but has seen firsthand the impact of medical cannabis on a loved one. After being involved in the industry for more than ten years in California, Schlett and Nicholas, who have a background in power generation, saw nothing but opportunity in a move to Mississippi’s fledgling medical cannabis industry.
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