Hawaii Medical Marijuana: Maui Dispensary Closed, For Now

WAILUKU, HI — Maui's first state-licensed medical marijuana dispensary — which opened last week — is already shortening its hours after its first batch of certified flowers sold out over the weekend.

Maui Grown Therapies opened for business Tuesday, but said it could only sell flowers over the weekend because state lab officials failed to approve its most recent batch of flowers in time, The Maui News reported. That led to depleted flower stocks on Maui and "disappointed patients," company officials said.

The company said it needs the state lab officials "to help unclog a backlog of products so Maui patients can have access to quality-assured medicinal cannabis products." (For more information on this and other Hawaii stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

The business will be closed Monday and Tuesday, and plans to reopen at noon Wednesday. Patients who make an appointment through the company's website will be able to buy products.

"It's unfortunate that an administrative hindrance of this magnitude prevents patients from getting the help they need," said Christopher Cole, director of product management for Maui Grown Therapies. "We had planned to open with a full range of derivative products such as concentrates, oils, capsules and topical products, but at the eleventh hour we discovered that the State Labs Division had failed to certify a lab to conduct testing of manufactured products."

State offices were closed Saturday, and state Health Department officials could not be reached for comment.

"We could serve thousands of patients with the amount of manufactured product we currently have available for final compliance testing," Cole said. "Even though we were approved by the Department of Health on May 24 to manufacture cannabis products, the restrictions placed on the state's only licensed lab have prevented us from offering these products to our patients — and it is entirely unclear to us when this will change."

The dispensary's initial posted hours were 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Dispensary hours have been changed to noon to 6 p.m. until further notice.

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