CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Office of Medical Cannabis is in the final stages of reviewing grower applicants and will begin scoring applications this week.
The state is limiting the number of grower permits to 10, processer permits to 10 and dispensaries permits to up to 100. Processer and dispensary applications will be evaluated after scorers consider grower applications.
Office director Jason Frame told MetroNews each applicant had to explain how their operation would function.
“We’re looking for things like employee education, qualifications, security plans, plans surrounding safety processes during the growing, processing and dispensing stages,” he said. “The applicants have to detail all of that in their applications.”
Frame noted the applications can be hundreds of pages; five outside scorers with “outside experience” handling such projects will handle the application review process.
The office has also opened the physician registration, in which there is not a statewide limit for the number of physicians that will be able to prescribe medical cannabis.
“We’ve already approved 10 positions, and we already have several more in the queue waiting for approval,” Frame said.
The physicians will note if a patient can receive a medical cannabis prescription, in which the Office of Medical Cannabis will determine if the patient should receive a prescription card.
“The reason why we’re not issuing cards at the moment, which we could do that technically, is that there’s nowhere to use them at the moment,” Frame said.
The card will only be good for a year and there is also a fee associated with getting a prescription.