The New York State Department of Health has awarded five companies cultivation and dispensing licenses for the state’s medical marijuana program.
Forty-three companies fought for the five licenses in a competitive bidding process.
Each company is restricted to opening only four dispensaries and will only be allowed to produce five medical marijuana strains. All products must be in pill, oil or tincture form and prices will be set by the Commissioner of Health.
Deputy state director at the Drug Policy Alliance said: “The announcement of the five producers is an important milestone in the implementation of New York’s medical marijuana program, but the state still has a long way to go before medicine gets to the patients who so desperately need it, and our concerns with the program’s limitations still stand. We hope that the selected companies have the experience, integrity, and focus on patient welfare that New Yorkers deserve.”
The five companies awarded licences are: Bloomfield Industries Inc., Columbia Care NY LLC, Empire State Health Solutions LLC, Etain, LLC, and PharmaCann LLC.
The Department of Health stated that New York’s medical marijuana program will be fully operational by January 2016.