Oregon Approves First Dispensaries

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Officials in Oregon have granted the first crop of operating licenses to medical marijuana dispensaries.

The Oregon Health Authority recently approved eight licenses for medical marijuana shops, though it also denied licenses to 22 dispensaries because of either incomplete applications or zoning restrictions.

The agency gave provisional licenses to 20 additional businesses. While the provisional licenses do not allow these businesses to open, it gives them 60 days to comply with various rules and regulations that they may not have adhered to.

, Oregon Approves First DispensariesThe names and locations of the approved licenses are to be kept private as a general rule. But seven of the eight businesses allowed the state to release their business information.

The licensees are: Pure Green, Oregon’s Finest and NW Green Oasis in Portland; the Releaf Center in Hermiston; Cherry City Compassion in Salem; Doctor’s Jolly in Bend; and Emerald City Medicinal in Eugene.

The Oregon Health Authority received 288 total applications, and as of Friday it had processed 50 applications. It expects to give licenses to 255 dispensaries. Each business had to submit its application with a $4,000 application fee, $500 of which was nonrefundable.