The state’s medical marijuana program will launch “as scheduled” on Thursday, but with only 8 of the 20 dispensaries, the state Department of Health announced on Tuesday.
Some of the companies that have received the five licenses from the state grow, manufacture and dispense have run into permitting issues with the dispensaries, which are scattered in different geographical areas of the state.
The dispensaries that will be operating on Thursday are in Onondaga, Erie, Albany, Ulster and Westchester Counties, and in Manhattan, the DOH said.
The Department of Health added in its released that the additional dispensaries will be opened on a “rolling basis” in locations across New York in January.
Officials, as well as medical marijuana companies, expect the growth of the program to be relatively slow. Medical marijuana will be available to patients with chronic diseases including cancer, HIV/AIDS, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis as well as severe forms of epilepsy.