Hang on to your leftover Halloween candy, because this installment of Live Active Cultures is likely to activate the munchies. Massachusetts-based Insa is currently one of the smaller competitors in Florida’s medical marijuana market, with only nine dispensaries — including two in Orlando — across the state. But they’ve got huge potential for expansion if and when legal adult recreational use arrives, thanks to their ginormous grow facility in Polk County. I recently drove an hour to Auburndale for a guided tour of Insa’s high-tech facility with CEO/co-founder Peter Gallagher and head grower T.J. Cummings, and came back with a buzz about Boston bud’s future in the Sunshine State.
Insa’s Auburndale cultivation complex is easily the most modern and massive marijuana-making facility I’ve been invited to visit so far. Although unassumingly industrial from the outside, the interior resembles Willy Wonka’s candy factory, if that film had been directed by Stanley Kubrick circa 2001: A Space Odyssey. Stark white hallways and keycard-controlled security doors — which I had to don a head-to-toe clean-suit coverall before entering — lead to vast climate-controlled rooms crowded with cannabis in every stage of development, from freshly cloned sprouts to full flowers on the verge of harvest.
Every stage of production, from trimming and packaging to making extracts and edibles, for all of Insa’s Florida stores is handled under one roof by a staff of fewer than 60, and I was struck by how the operation is so technologically advanced — with wavelength-tuned lights and computer-controlled irrigation individually nourishing thousands of plants, and Italian confectionery equipment capable of churning out 1,500 chocolate bars in four hours — yet simultaneously old-school, like the complex contraption dribbling concentrated cannabis oil into the same Ball jelly jar your grandma might use for canning fruit.
Before it becomes a joint or a gummy, all great ganja begins with good genetics; Frank Golfieri, Insa’s Massachusetts-based director of cultivation, is an industry veteran, says Gallagher, “So he’s got a lot of connections throughout the industry that he’ll leverage to get cuts to bring in variety and newness that we might not have in our genetic stock.” One of those new strains scheduled to arrive late this month at Insa’s Florida dispensaries is Peanut Butter Crunch, an indica-dominant hybrid of Peanut Butter Gelato and Cereal Milk that proved a hit up north: “Everyone in the company went and bought the Peanut Butter Crunch from the first drop, and the next day they came back to buy more.”
However, if you have nostalgia for vintage sativa strains (like Insa’s pre-millennial Super Lemon Haze), Cummings has some sad news: “True sativas have kind of been bred out quite a bit. It’s rare to truly find a real sativa. … Everything’s been so hybridized. It’s almost like chasing a wolf that’s going extinct.”
Since Insa was established in Massachusetts’ recreational market before expanding south, I was curious how cultivation methods and customer tastes differ in Florida. “It’s favorable in some instances and other times, a little more difficult,” says Cummings, who heads the 14-member grow team. “I prefer growing in Massachusetts, personally. I like growing in the wintertime; it’s easier on our HVAC, easier on our flower. The cooler temperatures bring out a little bit more cooler colors, and I think a little bit more resin development, [but] you can do a little bit more in Florida to keep things more consistent across the board.”
As far as consumption habits go, Gallagher says he’s noticed that in recreational markets, “the mix shifts towards a heavier assortment of pre-rolls,” whereas MMJ patients here “are typically a lot more price-sensitive, looking for value; as a result of that, they’re typically smarter [and] more knowledgeable on product and how to use it, and maybe more on top of the trends.”
Consequently, concentrates are far more popular down here. “Florida definitely has a bit more of a connoisseur approach. They like their rosin carts,” says Cummings, noting that some of Insa’s solventless products have a naturally darker color due to using more mature trichomes. “Everybody’s a bit of a rosin snob in Florida, and rightfully so. It’s expensive stuff, and you really want the best of the best.”
Insa oversized their Auburndale installation in anticipation of recreational marijuana’s eventual legalization, and intends to support any upcoming ballot measure to that effect. Until that happens, the biggest competition to Florida’s medical marijuana industry may be the gray market of hemp-derived cannabinoids unleashed by loopholes in the 2018 Federal Farm Bill. “They’re manipulating a molecule within [hemp] to make it more potent, and now we’re experimenting on the general population, which I think is unfortunate,” Gallagher says of unregulated products containing potent synthesized psychotropics like HHC. “I think you’re creating this unknown public health risk that’s potentially harming both adults and children. … We’ve been trying to do our part in educating legislators and regulators about this issue.”
Gallagher concludes, “We’re in an interesting period in our country’s history and in our industry’s history. We try to focus on what we can control, and it’s really just putting out a quality product and serving our customers and patients as best we can.”
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This article appears in Nov. 5-11, 2025.
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