HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Department of Health earlier this week issued 23 dispensary permits for Phase II of the medical marijuana program. Permits were denied for
a dispensary in Clarion County and two dispensaries in Venango County.

Proposed dispensaries in Global Resource Operations, LLC in Seneca and Calumet Care, LLC in Oil City were not selected.

Global-Seneca

Calumet Care-Oil City

Sunset Hills Medical LLC — that was earlier denied a permit to build a large grow facility in Clarion on an industrial/business site that previously was the home of Owens-Illinois Glass Plan — was not selected for two dispensary proposals, one in Clarion County and one in Allegheny County.

Sunset Hills purchased the former Clarion Clipper property on Route 68 for the Clarion location and also sought a dispensary permit in Gibsonia.

Sunset Hills-Clarion

Sunset Hills-Gibsonia

Similar to the selection process for selection of grow facilities, applications were rated on a number of factors, including a diversity plan, plan of operations, operational timetable, security and surveillance, diversion prevention, business history and capacity to operate, and community impact.

(Complete voting on the four proposed dispensaries is included with this story.)

A maximum of 1,000 points was used for the evaluation of each applicant.

• Global Resource’s Seneca application tallied 585.75 points out of 1,000.
• Calumet’s Oil City proposal rated 662.75 points out of 1,000.
• Sunset’s Clarion application earned 538.5 points out of 1,000.
• Sunset’s Gibsonia application totaled 546.75 points out of 1,000.

It is not clear if there will be additional licenses available or what impact legalized recreational marijuana is ever approved in Pennsylvania.

The closest official medical marijuana dispensary is located in Butler.

Once all Phase II dispensaries are operational, there will be a total of 79 dispensaries located throughout the Commonwealth.

The permittees will now have six months in which to become operational before they can begin dispensing medical marijuana.

Each of the dispensary permit holders is eligible to open a total of three locations. Some dispensary permit holders have opted not to open all eligible locations at this time.

“The permitting of these locations as part of Phase II of the medical marijuana program will ensure more people have access to medical marijuana close to home,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. “Medical marijuana is an essential form of treatment for Pennsylvanians suffering from one of 21 serious medical conditions. This step continues the growth of our scientific, medically-based medical marijuana program.”

A complete list of operational dispensary locations is available on the Department of Health website at www.medicalmarijuana.pa.gov.