Published 1:00 am Saturday, November 9, 2024
By Thomas Howard
Business leaders and elected officials gathered in College Park shopping center Friday to welcome a new business to town as REV Cannabis Dispensary held a ribbon cutting at its new Meridian location.
The dispensary is the first in the Queen City for REV, which also has stores in Hattiesburg, Tupelo and Brandon.
REV owner and CEO Ryan Bennett is a Meridian native and said being able to open a store in his hometown carries a special significance.
“It’s really near and dear to me,” he said. “I see a lot of people here that I’ve known most of my life, some that have mentored me since I was a kid.”
Medical cannabis, Bennett said, is much more widely accepted now than it was just a few years ago, and he has seen first hand the positive impacts it can have. There are still misconceptions about the industry, he said, but the benefits for the patients speak for themselves.
“You wouldn’t believe how many people come in these doors day after day,” he said. “It’s just amazing to see the changes, the positive changes it can make in peoples’ lives.”
Helen Sims, membership coordinator for the East Mississippi Business Development Corporation, which organized the ribbon cutting, said seeing Bennett come back to Meridian to open a business is exactly what the EMBDC wants for the community.
“We have a hometown boy that has made an investment in his own community,” she said. “He grew up here, and that’s what we love to see is for people to go off to school, go off to work somewhere else and then come back and make an investment in their community.”
REV Cannabis Dispensary owner and CEO Ryan Bennett speaks Friday at a ribbon cutting ceremony at the new REV location in College Park shopping center. Photo by Thomas Howard
Residents who may be unfamiliar with medical cannabis or how Mississippi’s medical cannabis program works, Sims said, can always come to REV to talk to experts, ask questions and learn more about the industry.
City Councilwoman Romande Walker, who serves as council presidents, also welcomed Bennett and his team to Meridian as they look to put the positive impact they’ve seen at other REV locations to work in the local community.
“As a City Council member of the city of Meridian and on behalf of our mayor, we welcome you here,” she said. “We welcome you to grow, we welcome you to expand and we welcome you to make our city a better place to live.”
