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Open enrollment for medical marijuana dispensary locations

North Dakota is one step closer to administering medical marijuana to patients - the first round of dispensary applications is now open.

Jason Wahl is the director of the medical marijuana division with the state health department. He says the applications are now open for the first two dispensary regions, Bismarck and Fargo. He says once the dispensaries are approved, there will be time for the facilities to be brought up to code and become eligible to receive products from manufacturers to distribute to patients. He says the next round of applications will be accepted later this summer.

"We anticipate another open application period to take place near the end of September. The two regions we are anticipating at this point in time to open up for applications will be the Grand Forks region and Williston region. We expect the selection of the entities to move forward for registration toward the end of December, and then we would look at the remaining four regions in January of 2019 to open up an application period."

Wahl says in all, there will be 8 dispensaries in North Dakota. He says the dispensaries will have potential to provide home delivery service, as well as the opportunity to sell medical marijuana to designated care givers as well as patients. He says applications from patients and designated care givers will be able to be taken online by the end of October.