Three of the state’s eight medical marijuana dispensaries likely will open by the end of March, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Aroostook County dispensary has marijuana ready to distribute and is making arrangements to deliver it to patients while it works with the town of Frenchville to secure its storefront, said Catherine Cobb, director of licensing and regulatory services for DHHS.

Operators of dispensaries in Auburn and Ellsworth have started growing marijuana and also plan to open in March, Cobb said.

She said the department this month will inspect the growing operation for a Biddeford dispensary, which probably will open in April.

The schedule for the opening of the four dispensaries operated by the Northeast Patients Group, an offshoot of California’s Berkeley Patients Group, is still uncertain.

In the plan outlined in its application to the state, Northeast said it would grow marijuana for all four of the dispensaries at a site in Hermon. Cobb said that’s not happening.

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Northeast now is working to secure a growing site in Cumberland County. Cobb declined to name the community before the deal is finalized, which could happen as early as this week, she said.

From the time marijuana starts to grow, it takes about 10 weeks until it’s ready to be used, said Cobb. She expects Northeast to have secured locations for all of its stores by the time it’s ready to sell marijuana.

Right now, the group has found dispensary locations only in Portland and Thomaston.

Northeast’s other licenses are for one dispensary in either Kennebec or Somerset counties and another in either Piscataquis or Penobscot counties. Cobb said the group hasn’t secured locations for either of those clinics.Auburn, Biddeford, Ellsworth and northern Maine clinics are planning to open this spring.


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