New York Licensees to be Announced by Friday

The wait is nearly over.

The New York Department of Health confirmed that it plans to reveal the winners of five state medical marijuana business licenses by Friday, according to the Daily Freeman News.

It’s a virtual certainty that legal action of some sort or another will follow shortly thereafter, since some of the 43 companies that applied for licenses have collectively spent millions of dollars in the pursuit of a permit.

At least one applicant even inked an international partnership deal, arguably to make itself more attractive to regulators, and another likely had a similar motive when it hired big-name former public officials.

The state’s MMJ program is slated to be up and running by next year. By law, dispensaries have to be operational within 180 days of being licensed, which is roughly six months.