Medical marijuana dispensary MedMen loses license in Virginia. Now Staunton could lose out entirely.

Less than a month after Governor Northam signed the bill to legalize medical marijuana, the Virginia Board of Pharmacy voted to deny MedMen's request for an extension and rescinded their conditional license to operate a medical marijuana dispensary in Staunton. 

The Board of Pharmacy voted to move forward with a Request For Applications with the timeframe to be announced, according to Virginia NORML's website. This means medical cannabis companies can once again apply for a license in the state.

But this also means the location for the facility can be anywhere in our health service area. Staunton is located in health service area one, which encompasses the Shenandoah Valley and Charlottesville. The Staunton location was tied to the facility that was awarded the conditional permit in 2018. Originally, this facility was PharmaCann. 

"As with the initial round of applications to the Board of Pharmacy, I hope Staunton is still a point of interest for other potential entities," said Billy Vaughn, Staunton's Community and Economic Development director. "Maybe the PharmaCann/MedMen site in Green Hills comes in to play."

In May 2019, PharmaCann Virginia purchased the land at 3 Industry Way in Green Hills Industry and Technology Center for $212,352, according to city records.

Back in August, PharmaCann held a Q&A for residents. Representatives from PharmaCann, the Virginia Medical Cannabis Coalition and the Greater Augusta Prevention Partners held the event to field questions from the public on the new medical cannabis dispensary PharmaCann in Staunton. During this time, it was said the facility would break ground soon and be able to serve patients by the end of the year, according to officials. 

That didn't happen. 

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PharmaCann had one year to make it all happen. The company needed to build the facility, start growing and submit for inspection by the Virginia Board of Pharmacy by the end of 2019 in order to receive a permit to open and begin providing medical cannabis to patients. 

But the building site location at 3 Industry Way remained empty. Initial plans were to build a new facility and hire employees. A local construction company would have been hired to build the facility, and to operate as a business, they would have needed between 10 to 15 employees to start. As the market increased, this would have increased to 20 to 30 employment opportunities for people in the area.

The building site at 3 Industry Way in Green Hills Industry and Technology Center for Staunton's medical marijuana dispensary remains vacant. (Photo: City of Staunton/Submitted)

Then MedMen Enterprises, Inc., a leading cannabis company with operations across the country, announced it would be merging with PharmaCann in one of the biggest deals in the marijuana industry. But in October 2019, MedMen announced the $682 million merger was terminated.

While news of one of the biggest medical cannabis acquisitions falling apart spread within the financial and marijuana business sectors, nothing about the failed acquisition causing delays in opening the dispensary in Staunton was communicated. 

As part of a debt settlement package after the merger was terminated, MedMen received the business license for the Staunton facility from PharmaCann, and it was then sold in December 2019 to MM Enterprises, or MedMen, for $10.

The 6.64 acres have sat untouched. Per Diane Powers, director of communications at Virginia Department of Health Professions, an inspection of the proposed building facility was performed per the original December 2019 deadline. Any corrective actions was under review by the Virginia Board of Pharmacy.

Due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, the original date of March 24 to review the inspection report and vote on corrective actions was canceled, said Powers. The review and vote instead took place on June 16.

In 2018, Virginia Board of Pharmacy granted five conditional licenses to open medical marijuana dispensaries in five health regions in the state. While the other four facilities are making progress in opening their dispensaries to be able to provide medical cannabis to patients, at this time there is no place in Virginia for patients to get their medicine. According to Virginia NORML, Dharma Pharmaceuticals in Bristol will most likely be the first dispensary in the state to service patients.

Reciprocity in Washington, D.C. was not granted to Virginia, though the District of Columbia did say they would revisit this once the state legalized medical marijuana and the dispensaries opened.