Pennsylvania Awards Permits for Medical Cannabis Dispensaries

By J.J. McCoy, Senior Managing Editor for New Frontier Data

The Pennsylvania Department of Health today granted 27 dispensary permits for medical cannabis dispensaries, chosen among 280 applicants. Last week, the state awarded licenses to 12 medical cannabis growers and processors among 177 applicants (check this space for forthcoming New Frontier Data analysis about the application process and criteria for awards).

Those companies issued dispensary permits now have six months to become operational, prior to begin dispensing prescriptions and products.

“This has been a highly competitive process and the department received hundreds of quality applications,” said John Collins, director of the state’s Office of Medical Marijuana. “Once this program is fully operational, patients with serious medical conditions will have locations throughout the commonwealth where they can purchase medication to help in their treatment. We remain on track to provide medication to patients in 2018.”

Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Act took effect on May 17, 2016, and is expected to be fully implemented in early 2018.

Each of the 27 dispensary permit holders is eligible to open a total of three locations, meaning that a total of 81 dispensaries could operate throughout the state, though some of the permit holders plan not to open all of their eligible locations at this point. For now, 52 dispensaries will be expected.

A complete list of locations is available on the Department of Health website at www.health.pa.gov. Likewise, individual dispensary locations, scorecards for all dispensary applicants, and redacted applications for the new permit holders are available on the Medical Marijuana section on the Department of Health website at www.health.pa.gov. Redacted applications for all grower/processors are also available on the website.

The dispensary permits have been issued to these companies, in the county where located:

• AES Compassionate Care (Delaware)
• BAY (Lancaster)
• Cansortium Pennsylvania (York)
• Chamounix Ventures (Chester)
• Columbia Care Pennsylvania (Lackawanna)
• Cresco Yeltrah (Butler)
• Dubois Wellness Center (McKean)
• Franklin Bioscience-Penn (Bucks)
• GTI Pennsylvania (Erie)
• GuadCo (Northampton)
• Holistic Pharma (Philadelphia)
• Ilera Healthcare (Montgomery)
• Justice Grown Pennsylvania (Luzerne)
• Keystone Center of Integrative Wellness (Lycoming)
• Keystone Integrated Care (Westmoreland)
• Keystone Relief Centers (Allegheny)
• KW Ventures Holdings (Dauphin)
• Lebanon Wellness Center (Blair)
• Maitri Medicinals (Allegheny)
• Mission Pennsylvania II (Lehigh)
• Organic Remedies (Cumberland)
• PA Health & Wellness (Centre)
• PharmaCann Penn (Philadelphia)
• Restore Integrative Wellness Center (Philadelphia)
• SMPB Retail (Berks)
• TerraVida Holistic Centers (Montgomery)\
• The Healing Center (Washington)

J.J. McCoy

J.J. McCoy is Senior Managing Editor for New Frontier Data. A former staff writer for The Washington Post, he is a career journalist having covered emerging technologies among industries including aviation, satellites, transportation, law enforcement, the Smart Grid and professional sports. He has reported from the White House, the U.S. Senate, three continents and counting.