Carpenter Medical Group will have seven more months to complete its medical cannabis cultivation facility after state regulators granted an extension to the Southeast Arkansas cultivator who didn’t make its deadline to get up and running.
The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which regulates the state’s medical cannabis program, unanimously granted the seven-month extension after the cultivator failed to meet the state’s one-year deadline to become operational and the cultivator’s 60-day extension had expired. Since July 2020, licensees have had one year from issuance of their license to become operational and can request one 60-day extension from ABC.
Licensees that do not meet the deadline and have exhausted their one extension are considered to have abandoned their license. Abandonment orders for Carpenter Medical Group were issued last Tuesday, ABC spokesman Scott Hardin said. Licensees must go before the ABC to request their license back as well as an extension to continue the work.
Owner Abraham Carpenter Jr. and Chuck Harper of HARCO Constructors argued before the ABC Board Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the timeline for receiving building materials such as steel. Harper said HARCO has built other cultivation facilities in the state and that it takes 18 months to two years to build the facilities. (Newly licensed cultivation facilities and dispensaries were not subject to the one-year rule until July 2020).
Read more at arktimes.com