An armed guard and a fence trimmed with barbed wire are the only signs of what lies within the plain metal building behind the police department.

Driving around, you’re more likely to notice the quaint town square or the 36-acre community park than this windowless, beige building set within a quiet industrial park.

But this facility, marked with not a single sign outside, is at the forefront of the state’s newest industry. And folks all around Carrollton, home to about 3,600 people, are banking on a big economic boost from an unlikely source.

Inside this building, workers carefully tend to a green sea of pot plants under a canopy of blinding lights. The smell is unmistakable.

C4, short for Carroll County Cannabis Co., expects its first harvest of medical marijuana this week, putting legal retail pot sales ever closer to patients for the first time in Missouri history. Founder Ty Klein is a Carrollton native and decided to move back home, bringing the marijuana business with him.

Missouri approved cultivation facilities and dispensaries across the state, in metro areas and small communities alike. But Klein believes Carrollton is poised to become a marijuana mecca. [Read more at The Kansas City Star]