Freeman Farms is a 20 acre family-owned and operated operation. Currently, Freeman Farms is growing on 4 acres. Tyler, founder of Freeman Farms and Freeman Farmaceuticals says, “We believe that the sunlight and the ground are the best for the plants to grow. I myself am a cannabis user, medical patient, as is one of our growers, Ben Sweet with Outlawed Genetics. His dad has cancer and he’s growing to make cannabis oil to help him during this time. I started cultivating cannabis in Oklahoma to be able to grow so I can process and make extracts to make non-smokables for the patients here in Oklahoma. Also to provide the Oklahoma industry with some unique medical cannabis varieties that I’ve collected over the years.”
The cultivation of outdoor cannabis in Oklahoma is not without challenges. Freeman Farms says that growing in Oklahoma has been a unique experience. “The early floods in the springtime set us back about six weeks. The humidity and the drastic change in weather had a little bit of impact on our grow as far as insects go. We had no mites. We had no infestation. Caterpillars were a little bit of a problem this year. Other than that, the beauty of the plants and the profile that it gets from the sun to pull the oils out has been great.”
The Pounds for Patients program is an outlet for the patients that really need the alternative medication here in Oklahoma. The program was created for the cannabis patients of Oklahoma to help out those that can’t afford their medication, trying to mitigate western pharmaceuticals or those that need help getting a license. Freeman says, “A lot of our patients here in Oklahoma that are on Medicare also are fixed income and can’t afford to either get their license or have affordable medication. We need to make affordable medication ready and available for those with terminal illnesses, such as cancer.”
Currently, Freeman Farms is cultivating 64 varieties and breeding over a hundred different cultivars of medical cannabis. Included amongst these varieties are “high-CBD”, balanced CBD:THC, and unique varieties such as Durban Poison which is high in THCV, a cannabinoid shown to kill cancer cells and promotes bone growth.
When asked what he hopes to see over the next few years in the Oklahoma cannabis community, Tyler says, “I would like to see a curriculum applied for educating those that are distributing the products, growing the products, and also an outlet for the patients taking the products. I’d like people to understand that the effectiveness of cannabis is not just based on a THC percentage. I’d also like to see CBD make a big comeback or at least a one to one to show people that THC is not just the dominant cannabinoid that helps people”
Freeman says he has is moved to help from stories he hears from people across Oklahoma. “There was a man that I had met through going fishing out of Fort Gibson. His wife was dying of stage two cancer. I struck up a conversation and I ended up having a Durban Poison strain in a vape pen. His wife had been through two rounds of chemo and the cancer came back. I talked to the man and asked if they’d tried any cannabis or anything. I ended up giving him my vape pen. Several months of contact back and forth, she was now using cannabis.” Freeman continues, “My broker had me come out to Tulsa this past year and meet with the owner of a dispensary. I walked into the dispensary. This lady came up and wrapped her arms around me and just thanked me for what seemed like a million times. Come to find out, it was this man’s wife. They were totally against cannabis. They weren’t going to try it. She took me back to her office and showed me her Facebook page a year to the date that I walked in that she was planning her funeral, and now she is a cannabis advocate and owns a dispensary in Tulsa, Oklahoma.”
To date, Freeman Farmaceuticals has donated over 1,000 pounds of flower to processors in Oklahoma. Freeman Farms says they are available on Facebook or via email at familytrees2019@gmail.com for dispensaries looking to participate in the program.