TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – Moving marijuana, carting cannabis, and distributing to dispensaries. It’s a sensitive operation that takes a specific skill set. One company is tapping retired police officers for the job.

“Not only do we deliver it, but we maintain the integrity of the product. There’s no chance for it to be tampered with,” said Jerry Eversman, a transportation specialist with cannabis transportation company Talaria.

Eversman is a retired Lucas County Sheriff’s deputy. When he was on the force, recreational marijuana use was still illegal in Ohio.

Now that Eversman is one of the people tasked with guarding legal adult-use and medicinal marijuana in Ohio, he is a lot more familiar with how the industry works. It’s a job that he never imagined having.

“I don’t know personal use of the marijuana, but I’m saying it’s very clean, it’s very accountable,” Eversman said. “There’s integrity in this, there is in this whole Ohio project.”

The transportation specialist uses the traits he learned in law enforcement to work for Talaria, including accountability, people skills, and attention to detail.

“Well it’s sensitive, it’s viewed as a drug and it’s a high-value item that’s in the back of our cars,” said Ari Raptis, the founder and CEO of Talaria.

Talaria transports products with licensed growers and dispensaries in more than 25 states. Raptis said Talaria has been operating in Ohio for years, even when they were only transporting legal medicinal products.

“We saw five times growth when it went from medical to recreational,” Raptis said.

Eversman said he is based in Toledo, but has traveled across the state. His routes have taken him as far as the Ohio River near West Virginia.

“We go to grow facilities in our transport vehicle,” Eversman said. “We’ll load in Toledo, Ohio, we’ll load in Gibsonburg, but we can be dispatched to load in the Cleveland area, Akron, Columbus.”

In the seven years since Talaria has been in business, Raptis said they’ve never lost product. It’s something that he attributes, in part, to their hiring model.

“The wheels wouldn’t move without the team that’s in the vehicles, and our success is all dependent on the team members that we hire,” Raptis said.

The company exclusively hires retired police officers and military personnel.

“There’s no one better than a retired law enforcement,” Raptis said. “Someone that has retired after 20 to 25 years in good standing, to us is our first measure of security and making sure that we transport in a secure fashion.”

Other safety measures include advanced tracking systems, using two-person delivery teams, and unmarked vehicles. But Raptis and Eversman said they couldn’t give too much away.

“Those become trade secrets I guess,” said Eversman.

It’s all a part of keeping their cannabis-carrying operation undercover from the general public.

Latest Local News | First Alert Weather | Crime | National | 13abc Originals

 Moving marijuana, carting cannabis, and distributing to dispensaries. It’s a sensitive operation that takes a specific skill set. One company is tapping retired police officers for the job.  Read More  

Author:

By

Leave a Reply