Utah Medical Cannabis License Recipients Announced
Jan 3, 2020, 4:20 PM | Updated: 10:31 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Officials with the Utah Department of Health have announced the recipients and locations of 14 medical cannabis pharmacy licenses in the state of Utah.
Over 130 applications were submitted from more than 60 different companies through a competitive bidding process, according to UDOH officials.
Eight locations may open as early as March 2020 and six may open as early as July 2020.
The pharmacies will be located in Logan, Ogden, West Bountiful, three in Salt Lake City, Park City, Vernal, Lindon, Provo, Springville, Cedar City and St. George.
“The evaluation committee spent hundreds of hours evaluating applications from companies seeking a limited number of licenses. It was a highly competitive process and some qualified applicants will be left disappointed, but that is the nature of a highly competitive process,” said Richard Oborn, director of the Center for Medical Cannabis at the UDOH. “The Utah Department of Health is committed to ensuring patients have safe and reliable access to medical cannabis and we are confident the companies selected are best prepared to meet the needs of Utah patients and provide the best value to Utah communities.”
Businesses And Locations
- Beehive’s Own (two licenses), Salt Lake City and location TBD but will be in Box Elder, Morgan or Rich County
- Bloom Medicinals, Cedar City
- Columbia Care, Springville
- Curaleaf, Lindon
- Deseret Wellness (two licenses), Park City and Provo
- Dragonfly Wellness, Salt Lake City
- Justice Grown Utah (two licenses), Salt Lake City
- Pure UT, Vernal
- True North of Utah (two licenses), Logan and Ogden
- Wholesome Therapy, West Bountiful
The 14 recipients of a medical cannabis pharmacy license and their locations. (Courtesy Utah Department of Health)
Officials said the licenses were divided among four geographic regions to ensure statewide access to medical cannabis for patients.
The first step before patients can begin to buy medical cannabis is for medical cannabis providers, such as doctors, to register to become a qualified medical provider.
That can begin in March.
Also, in March, Utah patients will be able to register with those medical providers.
Once a patient gets an approved medical cannabis card, they can then get the product from one of the 14 pharmacies announced Friday afternoon.
“There are a lot of advocates for medical cannabis in Utah that have been working really hard for many years to make this possible,” said UDOH spokesman Richard Oborn. “The Governor and the legislature came on board and this is just another of many critical steps to bringing medical cannabis to qualifying patients in Utah.”
Each licensee will pay an annual fee of $50,000-to-$69,500.
UDOH officials said seven of the 10 companies are owned entirely or in part by Utah residents and three hold cannabis cultivation licenses issued by the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.
The location of some pharmacies could change pending UDOH approval and owners passing criminal background checks.
“License applications were evaluated and scored by an evaluation committee based on several criteria, including experience in the medical cannabis or other highly regulated industries, disciplinary action or investigation in other jurisdictions, an operating plan that will best ensure the safety and security of cardholders and the community, the extent to which an applicant can reduce the cost of medical cannabis, connections to the local community and a strategic plan that has a high likelihood of success,” UDOH officials said.
