(Radio Iowa) – The Des Moines-based company which makes medical marijuana products for the state is changing its name. MedPharm Iowa is now called “Bud & Mary’s Cannabis.” Company group president, Lucas Nelson, says they have expanded into Colorado and Michigan, and the change better represents what they do. “We felt like, in part, obviously, Iowa was in the name for our previous company name, but that it was no longer as reflective of the company, the approach, and the way we’re trying to use science to bring the bring cannabis and to bring these products to all the people who might be able to benefit from them,” Nelson says.

He says the new name honors his grandfather, who was nicknamed Bud, and his grandmother Mary. Nelson says it also sends the signal that their products have a lot of different uses. “You know, we have had people in the past tell us that, oh, well, that sounds like a pharmaceutical, and so that must not be for me, where that’s just simply not the case,” according to Nelson. “I mean, here in Iowa, it’s now very, very easy to get a card, it’s easy to get online. If you qualify for one of those conditions, the process is extremely quick, it’s simple. It’s not the kind of heavy list that it used to be.”

He says while the number of customers has been increasing — there were still some who saw the MedPharm name and didn’t consider the products. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard — even some friends of mine — but people at the events we go to across Iowa, say, ‘Well, I don’t I’m not dying. So that wouldn’t help me even though I’m in tremendous pain, or, you know, my condition isn’t that bad. So that must not be for me’,” Nelson says. He says Bud & Mary’s Cannabis name also reminds people they are a family-owned business that has been around a long time.

“It’s a way to separate ourselves from some of those larger corporations, those public companies that, you know, I think there’s a perception that they may not have, you know, as personal of a touch, let’s say with some of their operations,” Nelson explains. The name change and rebranding also comes with more than 10 million dollars in investment to expand their existing Des Moines facility to increase cannabis production by three times what it is now. They plan to hire 20 more people to work at the facility once the expansion is complete.

The company’s Windsor Heights and Sioux City dispensaries were transitioned to the new name on June 3rd. The company plans to build a new cultivation & production facility in Michigan in the second half of this year, and will build a new dispensary in Michigan this summer. They plan to expand their existing Colorado production facility later this year.