A group of 10 Butler County people are hoping to get two licenses to grow and dispense medical marijuana.

Kurt Baumgartel of Adams Township said the group, known as Sunset Hills Medical, has applied to the state Department of Health for the licenses to open a grow and processing facility on a 48-acre farm they own in Forward township, and a dispensary just south of the county line in Gibsonia, Allegheny County.

For security reasons, the exact location of the farm is not being disclosed.

Baumgartel said the group formed because some members of the Sunset Hills management team suffer from a variety of the conditions approved for the use of medical marijuana.

One is Lorri Lankiewicz, a physical therapist whose autoimmune diagnosis several years ago saw her taking thyroid medication, albeit the most natural mixtures possible.

Still, she was not getting the results she wanted and continued to experience weight issues, metabolic changes and aches and pains.

Lankiewicz began taking cannabidiol, a derivative of the cannabis plant without THC, a little over a year ago.

“I said, 'Well, I'll have to try this,'” Lankiewicz said. “Within a couple months, I saw changes.”

She said the fatigue that plagued her dissipated, and she began feeling energetic.

“I just really started feeling better,” Lankiewicz said. “I wasn't dragging.”

She said new research shows that patients can experience even more relief when CBD is used in conjunction with medical marijuana.

“The potential change to people's lives really gives me the goose bumps,” said Lankiewicz, who currently sells CBD products at her physical therapy practice in Butler.

Baumgartel has a background in health care as a physical therapist and 20-year executive in the field.

“My personal passion is cancer,” Baumgartel said. “All of my family has been touched by cancer.”

He said his mother-in-law died of the disease in Ohio, where medical marijuana has not been legalized.

Baumgartel watched her struggle with intense pain as well as the side effects produced by the morphine prescribed by doctors.

In Pennsylvania, such a patient could use medical marijuana to ease end-of-life pain without the side effects produced by opioids, Baurmgartel said.

He said Sunset Hills applied for the licenses on May 17 and hopes to hear from the health department in July or August. If they receive the licenses, construction will begin immediately.

Forward Township has no zoning requirements, Baumgartel said, and all the required permits are in place in Gibsonia.

He said the cost to build and outfit the indoor grow facility will be $6.5 million and $1.5 million will be spent on the Gibsonia dispensary.

Sunset Hills already has the funding secured through private investors throughout the state, Baumgartel said.

Unlike many other growers and dispensaries approved in the initial round of licensure, Sunset Hills' team does not include any out-of-state growers or processors.

“We're different because we are all Pennsylvania owned and operated, which means all of the revenue would stay within the commonwealth,” Baumgartel said. “It is time, we feel, for a Pennsylvania-owned business to be awarded these licenses.”

According to projections, the two facilities would employ 52 people in the first year, up to 80 in year three and more than 120 in the fifth year, he said.

Baumgartel said the grow facility, which is required to be indoors, would start out at 50,000 square feet and be expanded to 100,000 square feet later.

The group intentionally waited to apply for licenses in the second round so they would thoroughly understand the business and its affect on potential clients.

“Instead of applying in phase one, we continued our research to make sure we were ready,” Baumgartel said.

He said only three or four growers are processing and supplying product to the state's many dispensaries, and Sunset Hills wants to help people with the 21 conditions.

“Medical cannabis needs to be made available to all of the residents of the Commonwealth, but definitely to the residents of Butler and Allegheny counties and the surrounding counties because there is not enough supply,” Baumgartel said.

The Sunset Hills team, Baumgartel said, is especially excited about the potential help their product will provide to those addicted to opioids or who suffer from the side effects of taking opioids for pain management.

“It's a real issue and medical marijuana is an option for treatment of opioid addiction, but also is a substitute for opioid pain control,” he said. “Research shows that in states with medical marijuana, deaths from overdosing on opioids have decreased by 25 percent.”

Baumgartel said he submitted with his application a letter of support from the county commissioners, and he plans to work with local colleges and universities once the facilities are up and running.

“We continue to work on garnering more community support,” Baumgartel said, “but we've really been embraced by the community.”