Louisiana medical cannabis sales launch now expected in June – maybe

Louisiana’s first batch of medical marijuana won’t reach the shelves by the mid-May deadline demanded by pharmacists and patients, further delaying the program’s sales start.

But June’s a possibility.

Louisiana State University’s agricultural center, which oversees one of two state-sanctioned marijuana growers, said it now expects to have some cannabis products ready for testing by state regulators at the end of May.

The release to the pharmacy dispensaries will depend on how long the agriculture department takes to do its testing – and on nothing disrupting production plans to get the product to the department.

“We’re moving as fast as we can,” Hampton Grunewald, with the LSU AgCenter, said at the latest public meeting to update medical marijuana supporters.

“There are hurdles that we’re all trying to jump through.”

Even when LSU’s grower, GB Sciences, gets medical cannabis to the shelves, it’s expected to provide only a limited supply for patients with the most severe conditions.

Frustrated that four years have passed since lawmakers created the framework for dispensing medical cannabis, Louisiana pharmacists licensed to dispense medical marijuana and the patients clamoring for it had called for a May 15 product release.

– Associated Press and Marijuana Business Daily