17 GROUPS SEEK TO DISPENSE MARIJUANA

The panel reviewing the 29 applications for eight facilities will
award licenses on July 9.

Seventeen groups hope to be among the first to open nonprofit
medical marijuana dispensaries in Maine, state officials said Friday.

Maine's Department of Health and Human Services received 29 license
applications from those groups before the deadline at 2 p.m. Friday.
Some submitted multiple applications in hopes of operating more than
one dispensary, or at least increasing their chances of operating one.

The submission of applications is a major step toward implementing
the law passed by Maine voters last fall. It calls for a dispensary
network to enhance access to the drug for registered patients with
illnesses such as cancer and AIDS.

A state review panel hopes to move fast, and will score the
inch-thick applications over the next two weeks based on business
plans, convenience of location, experience, patient education,
quality control, security, staffing and other factors.

The licensing division of the DHHS plans to award the licenses for
the state's first eight dispensaries on July 9.

"Once the selections are made, the successful applicants will be
able to go forward with proposals, finding sites, permitting, hiring
people," said Catherine Cobb, director of the licensing division.
"It will be a while before they actually have marijuana to sell. If
they got right out of the chute, they could start growing operations
quickly and within four months" be ready to serve patients.

The DHHS will select one dispensary operator in each of the state's
eight public health districts. York and Cumberland counties will
each have one dispensary.

There are six applications for the license to operate in Cumberland
County, six for the license to operate in York County, and six for
the license to operate in the district that covers Androscoggin,
Oxford and Franklin counties.

On the other hand, there is just one application to operate in the
Aroostook County district.

Applicants for Cumberland County's dispensary, which is expected to
operate in downtown Portland, are The Green Market Inc., Primary
Organic Therapy, the Northeast Patients Group, the Maine Patient's
Center, the Maine Wellness Group and the Southern Maine Medical Clinic.

Some of the groups are made up of patients and caregivers who
already grow medical marijuana on a small scale. Others are
suppliers who have experience growing and selling medical marijuana
in California and other states.

Each applicant had to pay a $15,000 fee, although groups will get
$14,000 back for any unsuccessful applications.

After dropping off multiple copies of the thick applications in
binders, cardboard boxes and accordion folders on Friday, many of
the applicants said they were hopeful, and tired.

"My job has been working on this," said Tim Smale of Vienna, who
applied for the western Maine district under the name Remedy
Compassion Center.

Smale said he and his wife, Jenna, spent nine months in California
to learn about the industry.

Igor Rakuz and Brendan McGann of the Maine Wellness Group said the
decision to apply to run a dispensary was personal, because both are
medical-marijuana patients. They said they pulled several
all-nighters perfecting their applications for the Cumberland, York
and midcoast districts.

"I'd love to see someone's application even touch ours," said Rakuz.

Luke Sirois of Rangeley, who applied for licenses in the York,
central Maine and western Maine districts, also was optimistic.

"There's no one, I believe, that's as motivated as we are," said Sirois.

Voters approved medical marijuana dispensaries in November, making
Maine the fifth state -- after California, Colorado, Rhode Island
and New Mexico -- to have such a system.

Leslie Bridgers of the Morning Sentinel contributed to this report.