Clinton County

Peter Marcus is the VP of External Affairs at Terrapin, one of Pennsylvania's original medical cannabis growers and processors.

Today, Terrapin runs a 180,000 square foot cultivation facility in Clinton County with about 250 employees.

Its products are on the shelf in almost every dispensary in Pennsylvania, and it operates three stores of its own in Central PA. Peter leads Terrapin's communications, government affairs, and community impact work, which means he spends a lot of time lobbying in Harrisburg.

Uh, before joining Terrapin in 2017, he spent more than a decade as a political journalist, most recently as senior state house reporter for The Colorado Springs Gazette and coloradopolitics.com. Washington Post twice named him one of the nation's top state-based political reporters, and Peter, welcome to High Spirits.

2017, though we really started having the conversations there in, like, 2016 to test the waters, see, you know, what it was gonna be like.

Uh, we wanted to find, knowing how these programs go, that it's about economic development, bringing jobs, you know, um, revenue, you know, especially Pennsylvania was still wrapping its brain around whether medical marijuana was gonna work for the state.

Um, we chose central rural Pennsylvania where we could really have an impact, so we're based out of Clinton County.

Uh, when we first had those discussions with, like, the local chambers and leaders and stuff, like, it was really hard for them to wrap their brain around, you know.

Our special guest today is Desiree Myers.

She's the chief clerk and chief operating officer of Clinton County, Pennsylvania.

Welcome, Desiree.

Hi, thanks for having me.

And so, we always like to go back to those starter stories and, uh, can you share with the audience how you got started, uh, in local government?

Yeah.

So prior to walking in the doors of Clinton County Government, I was in the public sector, but in the school district side of things.

So I'm primarily human resources.

Pennsylvania means Penn's Woods, and when the name was given in 1681, it was a plain description of the place because nearly all of it was forest.

Across the northern tier of the state, in Potter and Tioga and Lycoming and Clinton Counties, that forest was mostly white pine on the ridges and hemlock in the hollows.

An eastern hemlock can live 500 years and stand well over 100 feet tall, and the trees grow so thick along the creeks that very little sunlight reaches the ground under them.

The settlers who came into that country called it the Black Forest, and the name is still on the maps.