NY picks 5 firms to grow and sell medical marijuana [Video]

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Syracuse, N.Y. — The state announced today it has awarded licenses to these five businesses to grow and sell medical marijuana in New York:

Bloomfield Industries Inc., Columbia Care NY LLC, Empire Health Solutions, Etain LLC and PharmaCann LLC.

Each of the firms will be able to open up four dispensaries. Three of them — Bloomfield, Etain and PharmaCann — will open dispensaries in Onondaga County.

Forty-three businesses applied for licenses.

“The five organizations selected for registration today showed, through a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation process, they are best suited to produce and provide quality medical marijuana to eligible New Yorkers in need, and to comply with New York’s strict program requirements,” said Dr. Howard Zucker, the state’s health commissioner.

The 43 businesses submitted their applications containing tens of thousands of pages of information to the state June 5. The applications were evaluated by a team of state government professionals with backgrounds in medicine, quality …