Contact Ataraxia Contact AtaraxiaOriginally published 10/3/2015 at 
Associated Press
Lead grower Dave Wilson cares for marijuana plants in the "Flower Room" at the Ataraxia medical marijuana cultivation center in Albion, Ill. Illinois regulations bar pesticides once the plants have flowered, so Ataraxia grows garlic, a natural pest repellent, alongside the cannabis in the flower room.
The Associated Press recently gained an exclusive look at Illinois' first legal marijuana crop, and the new farmland ritual beginning amid the cornfields surrounding the historic town of Albion.
Illinois is among 23 states that allow marijuana for at least medicinal purposes. The state's restrictive law doesn't allow people to grow their own, only state-approved cultivation centers with rigid security systems.
A company called Ataraxia is harvesting medical marijuana that will soon be sold in dispensaries around the state. It's the first center to make it to the finish line after running a gantlet of state requirements.
Inside the locked warehouse, the life cycle starts in the "mother room," where plants provide a source for cuttings. The final stage before harvest is the "flower room," where full-size plants are covered with fibers called trichomes, which contain the drug's active ingredients, THC and CBD.
Ashley Thompson, former high school agriculture teacher and now a grower for Ataraxia, inspects marijuana plants inside the "Mother Room" at the Ataraxia medical marijuana cultivation center in Albion, Ill. Marijuana strains with names like Blue Dream, OG Kush, Death Star and White Poison are now being cut and dried, and by mid-October, will be turned into medicine in many forms like oils, creams, buds for smoking, edible chocolates and gummies.