(ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – January 10, 2022) – George Irwin, Founder and President of GLTCannabis, is proud to announce the appointment of Phyllis Lacca, President of Masterpiece Advertising, and Jon M. Regis, MD, former President of Reliance Medical Group, as Partners of VertiKal Tech and the retail subsidiary, TheJoint.me. The company is part of a family of world-class cannabis science and technology brands, including New Jersey’s own HOPE Holistic HealTHCare. Both VertiKal Tech and the TheJoint.me are based in Portland, Maine, the New Jersey subsidiaries provide the healthiest and cleanest cannabis products available on the East Coast. Utilizing Irwin’s patented Vertical Cultivation System (VCS), VertiKal Tech is the only dedicated cannabis laboratory on the East Coast to offer state-of-the-art tissue culture that supports professional cannabis cultivators. Tissue Culture starts with in house testing for disease and viroid’s. VertiKal Tech, the company’s tissue culture brand, provides meristem harvesting, micropropagation, and genetics preservation using bio-reactors. These state-of-the-art techniques supply the industry with a safer, greener, and more productive plant stock that eliminates “mother rooms” where most disease starts and is transferred. According to Irwin, “Mother rooms are the root of most problems in the cultivation facility. Disease and viruses are passed through poor techniques, stress, and genetic degradation. Eliminating the mother room and utilizing our tissue culture services, the state’s cultivators can start with guaranteed disease and virus-free plant stock each grow cycle. Because we test all of our plants stock, it only makes sense we extend our services to the state’s testing license.”
“Both Ms. Lacca and Dr. Regis enhance the professionalism of VertiKal Tech through their diversity, business experience, and history of success, not only in New Jersey but globally. Ms. Lacca is a global scale marketer, a woman-owned enterprise, and has acted as a mentor for countless other businesses both at home and abroad. Dr. Regis has a passion for the medical community and understands what benefits cannabis provides as true medicine. His expertise as a physician enhances the company’s focus of being scientifically driven. Not only do Ms. Lacca and Dr. Regis enrich the business, but they provide numerous opportunities for mentorship within our brands and the cannabis industry,” said Mr. Irwin.
A highly-respected New Jersey physician and surgeon, Dr. Regis is a long-term client of Ms. Lacca. The Atlantic City-area professionals, along with New Jersey native, Mr. Irwin, were invited to Las Vegas, Nevada by the New Jersey Cannabis Industry Association in February 2018. During the fact-finding trip, the group learned how Nevada created a thriving cannabis market within months of voters approving legal sales.
As a progressive entrepreneur and passionate philanthropist, Ms. Lacca saw the humanitarian and business values of the cannabis industry. An advocate of holistic healing and minority business owner, Dr. Regis understands how medicinal and recreational cannabis usage benefits the public. Mr. Irwin was a firsthand witness to the therapeutic advantages of cannabis, seeing how it helped his son overcome Stage II Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
After establishing himself as a leading authority in the green tech sector and former US Ambassador for Green Tech to Central and South America he also patented multiple manufacturing and designs of living walls, green roofs, and vertical farms, Mr. Irwin turned his attention to the cannabis science and technology sectors. His Vertical Cultivation System is the only zero wastewater, zero biomass waste, landfill free agricultural system in the world and has revolutionized the way medical cannabis is produced. Powered by the innovative VCS cultivation system, VertiKal Tech grows up to 10x more medicinal cannabis per square foot than the traditional means. The state of Maine has lauded VertiKal Tech for its safer and eco-friendlier hemp and cannabis products. Moreover, the patented vertical farming technology results in the highest gram per watt and some of the lowest manufacturing costs in the industry. This provides the Veteran and Elderly markets with access to affordable cannabis products because of lower production rates are passed down to the consumer. Moreover, this technology paves the way for numerous high-tech entry-level jobs that would not require a college degree.
With the success of the testing and tissue culture facility under the company’s brand VertiKal Tech in Maine, Irwin and Lacca are poised to move into the adult-use space in New Jersey under the testing and cultivation guidelines. Because of the rules, HOPE Holistic HealTHCare will be subject to obtain both a testing license and a cultivation license to propagate cannabis for the cultivation market, even though the plants are grown from a single cell in a test tube in order to provide disease and virus free plant stock to the state’s growers.
Ms. Lacca and Dr. Regis are honored to become part of VertiKal Tech’s pioneering team at the forefront of the medical/adult-use cannabis industry. Ms. Lacca’s marketing and business expertise will successfully leverage New Jersey’s rapidly growing medical/recreational cannabis industry. After nearly four decades of providing high-quality, cost-effective, comprehensive medical services to patients, Dr. Regis understands how accessible cannabis products can benefit New Jersey. They chose to partner with Mr. Irwin because of their shared values and visions.
