It’s been 7 months since voters passed medical marijuana under measure 5, and the process to get everything up and running is still going on.
“We think we’ve got a good law. We think we’ll have some good regulations,” said Kenan Bullinger, the medical marijuana division director under the department of health.
He has been the driving force, behind the law, since November. And he says in the next few weeks, they’ll finally have all the administrative rules taken care of.
“We really have a lot of safeguards within the administrative rules that will help us unsure that what’s being produced in this state is safe for the qualifying patients that will be applying to receive it through the dispensaries,” said Bullinger.
Once those rules are completely laid out, they’ll request the governor’s office to approve all of the details. This will require an emergency rule-making authority. Then after that, is when the process of selecting the 2 growers and 8 dispensaries allowed in the state, will begin.
He added, “We want the best growers that are going to submit applications and how they’re going to do their internal quality control and how they’re going to establish good security and alarm systems”
Bullinger says the applications will be available in the next few months and the selections hopefully be made by October 1st. But the date still hasn’t been set on when medical marijuana will be available for use.
“It’s all dependent upon how quickly we get through the applications, how we select, and how long it takes the growers to get up and established,” said Bullinger.
He says they’re hoping to see the first sales happen within the first 6 months of 2018.
Bullinger also says medical marijuana will only be available in 4 forms: smokable plant, drops under the tongue, a patch, and topical cream.
credit:myndnow.com
