The state health department plans to start accepting applications for growers and dispensers in Pennsylvania’s newly-formed medical marijuana program on February 20. The holder of a dispensary permit can open up to three locations. The nearest main dispensary will be in Butler County, a Region 5 member that has been approved for one dispensary permit. The second and third dispensary locations must be in different counties than the first but must still be in the same region, Collins said. The 11-county Southwest Region contains Pittsburgh and will have five collectives and two growers or processors.
In what she called the "first phase" of the program, the state will issue 12 permits for growers/processors and up to 27 dispensaries. Pennsylvania state law authorizes up to 50 collectives total. It also can’t be inside a doctor’s office or on the same site used for marijuana growing and processing. The Northcentral region will be issued two dispensary permits and two grower/processor permits.
The department is expecting about 900 applications to flood in, and it anticipates spending at least 90 days to go through them, Collins said, noting that the department is on track to have an operating medical marijuana program by mid-2018. The complete implementation of the program was expected to take 18 to 24 months and includes setting up dispensaries and laboratories.
Extensive planning has been put into the state’s impressive cannabis program.
The state has been divided into half a dozen medical marijuana regions, with each of those regions allocated a couple of cultivation facilities.
Murphy said the decision on how permits would be distributed in the first phase is based on health department medical data, "as well as comments from more than 5,000 patients and almost 900 potential grower/processors and dispensary applicants".
In the interim, the state has approved 134 "safe harbor" applications for patients.
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Full Article: County To Get Medical Marijuana Dispensary Permit
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