HILO — Companies headed by Adel Etinas and Steven Black were next in line for Big Island medical marijuana dispensary licenses, according to scores released Friday by the state Department of Health.
HILO — Companies headed by Adel Etinas and Steven Black were next in line for Big Island medical marijuana dispensary licenses, according to scores released Friday by the state Department of Health.
Etinas, who applied under the company Hawaii Agri-Health, and Black, as Kona Gold Wellness Center LLC, were ranked behind winning Hawaii Island applicants Richard Ha, a former banana farmer, and Shelby Floyd, a retired Waimea-based attorney.
Islandwide, 14 applicants were vying for two dispensary licenses. Each license allows up to two retail locations — known as dispensaries — and two production centers — facilities for growing marijuana. Once open, dispensaries will provide the island’s nearly 6,000 patients a way to legally purchase their medicine for the first time since the drug was legalized in 2000.
Each applicant was given a score based on 13 “merit criteria” which included the ability to operate a business, plans for operating a dispensary, a timeline for opening, proof of financial stability, and a plan for secure product disposal, among other things.
Two were applicants were disqualified because they didn’t submit proper documents establishing basic requirements.
Dispensaries can begin operating as early as July 15, though it’s unclear how many statewide will do so.
Ha said Friday his company, Lau Ola, plans to open retail locations in Kona and Hilo. The company hasn’t started growing marijuana yet, he said, and is still eyeing an end-of-the-year opening, at the soonest.
“It’s been a long journey and a lot of adjustments,” Ha said. “But we are really pleased, especially because we think we can do some good for people and patients.”
Floyd declined to share details about her dispensary plans Friday but said the company is firing “on all cylinders.”
She previously told the Tribune-Herald the company wants to open “as (close to) July 15 as we can,” contingent on how quickly building plans are approved, among other variables. She also said previously the company was looking to lease acreage in Kona and was looking at potential dispensary locations in Hilo, Kona or Waimea.
The DOH can issue more dispensary licenses starting Oct. 1, 2017, based on patient need.
Okubo said the DOH has no plans of issuing more licenses just yet, though at least one rejected Big Island applicant, a company headed by Pahoa school teacher Denim Cretton, said it plans to apply again as soon as possible.
“If they open it up, we’re surely going to apply, no doubt about it,” Cretton said Friday. “And all the relationships we’ve established would still be in place. It doesn’t change anything.”
The DOH also is finalizing a contract with Florida-based Bio Track THC to establish a web-based, seed-to-sale computer tracking system. The the DOH will use the system to monitor marijuana statewide.
“It’s to ensure that the product is being retailed and distributed properly” and that “no diversion is taking place,” DOH spokeswoman Janice Okubo said.
Once open, dispensaries also will need to have samples of all marijuana tested in a state-approved laboratory. Okubo said as of Friday the department hadn’t received any applications for facilities wishing to get certified.