BARRY, Ill. (WAND) - We're less than a month away from the legalization of recreational marijuana in Illinois.

Cultivation centers like Ascend Illinois are gearing up, producing larger quantities for customers to buy right here in central Illinois.

Ascend, otherwise known as HCI Alternatives, has locations in Springfield and the metropolitan St. Louis area. The CEO of Ascend, Chris Stone, said the company will have two different branches - one of medical and one for recreational.

"HCI is going to turn out to be the medical portion of Ascend Illinois. It's going to deal with everything on the medical side," Stone said. "Illinois Supply and Provisions will be the adult use portion of our business."

WAND got an inside look into Ascend's facility in Barry, where they produce nearly 100 pounds of marijuana each week.

Vice President of Cultivation Frank Mancinelli said the 75,000 square foot facility has made a lot of changes in the last year.

"We're trying out new strains. We've got a new crew, a new facility," Mancinelli said. "There's a whole lot of moving parts, that it takes time to get them all working."

Vice President of Operations David Jerome said it takes about 15 to 20 weeks from the time seeds are planted to getting the product on the market.

Jerome said in order to try to keep up with the demand, the facility has hired nearly 100 new employees.

"We've brought in, most recently, some real high-calibration cultivation folks, both at the corporate level and locally," Jerome said. "We're doing all of the training here internally."

Employees work under 24-hour surveillance with more than 200 security cameras placed around the facility.

"We're audited once a week by the Department (of) Ag, as well as state police," Jerome says. "We track all movements, not just waste, all movements from seed to sale."

According to Jerome, Ascend's biggest goal is making high-quality products.

"We're getting this thing right and as we move forward, our focus really is to build an organization that's growing the best cannabis in the state of Illinois and in the country," Jerome said.

Ascend representatives said they are still working on finalizing the cost of their products.  Â