Blue Diamond Ventures Inc (BLDV)

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Board pushes CBD processor approvals to September

DAVID MCGEE | BRISTOL HERALD COURIER | Aug 9, 2018

Potential operators of CBD and THC-A oil production and distribution facilities must wait another month to learn if their applications will receive conditional state approval.

Under a 2018 state law, five pharmaceutical processors — one in each region of the state — may be approved to grow cannabis, harvest the cannabidiol and THC-A oil and dispense it to patients with a doctor’s certification, for the treatment of certain health conditions.

This week, the Virginia Board of Pharmacy announced it plans to delay the review and selection of those firms until late September. The original, tentative schedule expected an ad hoc committee to score the applications in July and the board to identify which applicants would receive conditional approval Tuesday.

“To provide sufficient time for the ad hoc committee to complete a thorough evaluation of the pharmaceutical processor applications, the tentative schedule referenced in the RFA [request for applications] has been amended,” according to a statement from the board.

Under the revised schedule, the committee will meet Sept. 4-5 to discuss scoring of all applicants and then Sept. 25 to review scoring and identify those applicants awarded conditional approval.

Oct. 5 is the new deadline for all employees of all chosen applicants to be fingerprinted and submission of information for criminal background checks. No person with a felony conviction may work at any of the processing facilities, under state law.

The board isn’t expected to finalize those conditional approvals until either its Oct. 25 or Nov. 28 meeting, depending upon receipt of all criminal background results, according to the statement.

In June, the Board of Pharmacy accepted 49 applications from firms statewide, including 10 from Area 3, which includes Bristol, Roanoke, Salem, Martinsville and all of Southwest Virginia.

The state is not releasing the actual applications, which contain proprietary business information, nor any information about who submitted them.

At least two local applications were submitted. Dharma Pharmaceuticals, a Bristol-based startup, wants to establish a cannabis growing, processing and dispensing business in part of the vacant Bristol Mall. Another group wants to establish a similar operation in a county-owned spec building in Lebanon. It is being spearheaded by Organa Brands, a Denver-based company that bills itself as the world’s largest distributor of legal cannabis.

If successful, Dharma predicts it would create about 150 jobs. The Organa group previously predicted its operation would initially hire up to 25 people and could create another two or three jobs per month.

Source: https://www.heraldcourier.com/news/board-pushes-cbd-processor-approvals-to-september/article_53b09b06-24aa-5335-82a8-fbc447da4c2d.html?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=Breaking%20NewsActive%20Subscribers&utm_campaign=_Breaking%20News

Secondary link: http://dharmapharmaceuticals.com

- Although it is not ideal to see the delay, the number of jobs that Dharma would create and the investment amounts involved (link back) with the proposed facility makes it seem to be a big project. If BLDV gets further work beyond submitting the application for Dharma, this project could bring in some decent revenues for BLDV if the application is approved.

Go BLDV!