List of medical marijuana applicants released
Almost two dozen are in southwestern Pa.
HARRISBURG — Hundreds of applicants have asked for licenses to grow or sell medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, including more than 20 in the state’s southwestern corner.
In their first accounting of the flood of applications, state Health Department officials said Wednesday that they received more than 500 packages by the March 20 deadline, and have sifted through 258 applications. Among those have been 22 applications to grow medical marijuana in southwestern Pennsylvania.
But officials wouldn’t release the names of the people behind the company names — or divulge the locations where they propose to grow or sell the drug.
More company names will be released after additional applications have been reviewed.
Still, the applications illustrate the frenzied interest in getting in on the ground floor of the potentially lucrative medical marijuana industry, which some advocates hope will be the first step toward broader legalization of the drug.
Only 12 growing permits will be granted statewide.
The state has been moving swiftly to implement a law passed last year with support from both parties in the Republican-controlled Legislature. The law aims to supply cannabis to seriously ill patients who have any one of 17 qualifying ailments.
March 20 was the deadline for all materials for people vying for one of 12 initial grower licenses. The state also received applications for would-be operators seeking one of 27 permits that would allow up to 81 dispensaries, where prescriptions could be filled, across the state.
The permit applications that are pending represent just the first phase of the bidding process. The state also is preparing to offer clinical registrant licenses, which would attach medical marijuana to existing hospitals that also serve as academic medical institutions.
That credential would allow eight academic medical centers to select investor partners to establish research, growing, and dispensary networks of their own. Health systems have been soliciting potential suitors for months.
It was an easy sell for the conservative Legislature: Polling found that nearly nine out of 10 Pennsylvanians approved of medical marijuana, which already is legal in some other states, including New Jersey and more recently West Virginia. Also, the law prohibits the drug from being made available in dry leaf or plant form — only in pill, oil, gel, vapor or liquid forms.
Each applicant was required to put up a non-refundable $10,000 fee, in addition to a $200,000 permit fee that will be returned only to the unsuccessful applicants. The ante for dispensary licenses, which will allow the winner to operate up to three storefronts, was $5,000, and those checks were accompanied by a refundable permit fee of $30,000 per storefront.
Medical marijuana grower/processor applicants for southwestern Pennsylvania include: AgriMed; Akeso Solutions; American Appliance Outlet; Bay LLC; Commonwealth Medical Alternatives; Cresco Yeltrah; Commonwealth Alternative Medicinal Options; Gengrow; Green for Life Growers LLC; Iron City Cannabis; Keystone Integrated Care; Laurel Green Medical; Maitri Medical; Penn Farm Medicinals; PennAlt Organics; Pure Keystone; PurePenn LLC; Sirona Penn; THC of PA (The Holistic Center); The Sentel Group; Vistamont Farms Green; You Name It Contracting.