Medical marijuana facility set to open in Manassas next year
MANASSAS, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - For the first time, a medical marijuana facility is set to open in northern Virginia. The location in Manassas is one of five opening in the state. It is set to start serving patients as early as next year.
Even though technically, medical marijuana is not legal in the state of Virginia, a quiet industrial strip off of Route 28, inside the city limits, could be transformed into a facility that will grow, process and sell medical cannabis products, and it will serve registered patients all over northern Virginia.
A spokesman for the company Dalitso tells FOX 5 the location could be as big as 60,000 square feet where medical cannabis will be grown indoors, processed and then sold to patients through a dispensary storefront all in the same building.
For now, only certain products like oils, tinctures pills, lotions and creams containing CBD and THC will be available, but not any edibles or even “flower,” which is the actual green buds you get straight off the plant.
They plan to initially open five different locations in different areas of the state, including Manassas, Staunton, Bristol, Richmond and Portsmouth.
Its an unprecedented move for Virginia, where unlike D.C. and Maryland, the selling or possessing medical marijuana is not legal.
The difference is it will be considered a “regulated cannabis program”. This after legislation was updated last year stating that patients, parents and legal guardians may apply for a medical cannabis certificate after getting a written recommendation from a doctor.
That certificate, as long as it's on you if you're ever stopped by law enforcement, will act as an affirmative defense. Meaning it’s a layer of protection that will prevent those patients from facing criminal charges at a later date, and hopefully prevent Virginia patients from obtaining unsafe products or bringing them across state lines which violates federal law.
"The first thing we wanted to do was make sure if you are using a product from one of the five licensees that you are protected from any type of prosecution. They wanted to make sure that we weren’t importing products from outside the state because they can't regulate those programs, but the Board of Pharmacy and the state can regulate us and we are heavily regulated. We will be inspected. We are making sure everything is tested, not only in house but also by third parties," said Dalitso spokesman Aaron Lopez. "Our biggest concern is patient safety, that’s our number one concern, and we want to make sure the products you’re taking are right for you."
The city says the location off of Phoenix Drive will be where the facility is built, which also happens to be a little over a mile away from Osbourn Park High School, however, Dalitso was not ready to confirm an exact location Friday. They do say planting could begin at the end of the year which means products could start being sold as early as next spring.