Cannabis oil dispensary serving Northern Virginia to open in 2019

A medical cannabis oil dispensary serving Northern Virginia is expected to open in Manassas “sometime in 2019,” says Greg Kennedy, co-owner of Dalitso LLC.

Dalitso is one of four dispensaries statewide given “final conditional approval” by the Virginia Board of Pharmacy Nov. 28.

The dispensaries will produce and sell medicinal products that contain CBD and THC-A oil. While the oils are derived from marijuana plants, they don’t create a high.

The companies selected by the Board of Pharmacy are vertically integrated medical producers  responsible for the entire process, including growing marijuana plants, processing the oil, manufacturing the products, and selling them to the public.

Dalitso will serve Health Service Area 2, which covers Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun, and Prince William counties and the City of Alexandria.

The company is still working on an exact location for its dispensary, It will grow plants inside the building with indoor lighting.

There is evidence that cannabis oil is effective for a variety of conditions, such as pain relief, depression, anxiety, seizures, reducing symptoms related to cancer and nausea from cancer treatments, and reducing high blood pressure.

“There are a lot of people who are suffering. We’re hopeful that we’ll be part of the solution,” Kennedy says.

To purchase cannabis oil, customers will have to obtain a recommendation from a physician who is registered with the Board of Pharmacy. Patients will have to register with the board after they receive a recommendation.

They could then purchase a cannabis oil product from the dispensary in their region. The first time, they will have to visit the dispensary in person. After that, home delivery service will be available.

More than 180 physicians in Virginia have registered so far. That’s a solid number considering the state didn’t do anything to promote the cannabis oil program and some physicians might not even be aware that it’s in place, says Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML.

A searchable spreadsheet on the Virginia NORML website lists eight registered physicians in Fairfax, six in Alexandria, three in McLean, two in Arlington, two in Falls Church, and one each in Springfield and Vienna.

After receiving preliminary approval from the Board of Pharmacy, Dalitso proposed moving its facility to an existing building in Gainesville, which would have it allowed to open a few months earlier, but the board denied that request.

“That did not set us back at all. We’re going forward with our plans,” Kennedy says. Manassas is only a 30 or 40-minute drive from Annandale, he notes. “We’re in a tight footprint in Northern Virginia. A third of the state is going to have access within a one-hour drive time. That is outstanding.”

According to Pedini, the Board of Pharmacy received 51 applications from potential dispensaries statewide. Each one had to pay a $10,000 filing fee, and those that are accepted must pay a $60,000 licensing fee. (A fifth dispensary, serving southwestern Virginia, hasn’t been announced yet.)

The dispensaries are only allowed to produce cannabis oils with at least 5mg/mL of CBD (cannabidiol) or at least 5mg/mL of THCA-A (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid A) and that contain no more than 5 percent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).

Virginia NORML will be urging state legislators to remove the 5 percent cap on THC, Pedini says, because the current restriction “limits the therapeutic potential.”