Dept. of Health awards medical cannabis licenses

The Utah Department of Health has announced the winners in its application process to award 14 pharmacy locations that will receive medical cannabis licenses. The 14 pharmacies were chosen in a competitive bidding process that saw 60 different companies submit applications for 130 possible locations.{mprestriction ids="1,3"}

With the issuance of the licenses, the department expects some of the locations to be up and running by March. However, some locations may open later than the allowed March target date.

“Some of the companies to whom the department intends to award licenses do not yet have ownership of their proposed locations and, in some cases, their proposed locations may change. Their operating plans are pending department approval and their owners must still pass criminal background checks,” the Department of Health said in a statement.

The companies that will receive licenses and the locations of the pharmacies are:

• Beehive’s Own (two licenses), Salt Lake City and a location to be determined in Box Elder, Morgan or Rich counties.

• Bloom Medicinals, Cedar City.

• Columbia Care, Springville.

• Curaleaf, Lindon.

• Deseret Wellness (two licenses), Park City and Provo.

• Dragonfly Wellness, Salt Lake City.

• Justice Grown Utah (two licenses), Salt Lake City and St. George.

• Pure UT, Vernal.

• True North of Utah (two licenses), Logan and Ogden.

• Wholesome Therapy, West Bountiful.

Dragonfly Wellness, True North of Utah and Wholesome Therapy also hold marijuana cultivation licenses. Medical cannabis pharmacy licensees will pay an annual licensing fee of $50,000 to $69,500 to the state, depending upon the type of license they received and the location of the pharmacy.

License applications were evaluated and scored by an evaluation committee based on several criteria, including experience in the medical cannabis or other highly regulated industries, disciplinary action or investigation in other jurisdictions, an operating plan that will best ensure the safety and security of cardholders and the community, the extent to which an applicant can reduce the cost of medical cannabis, connections to the local community and a strategic plan that has a high likelihood of success.

“The evaluation committee spent hundreds of hours evaluating applications from companies seeking a limited number of licenses. It was a highly competitive process and some qualified applicants will be left disappointed, but that is the nature of a highly competitive process,” said Richard Oborn, director of the Center for Medical Cannabis at the department of health. “The Utah Department of Health is committed to ensuring patients have safe and reliable access to medical cannabis and we are confident the companies selected are best prepared to meet the needs of Utah patients and provide the best value to Utah communities.”{/mprestriction}