State's first medical pot dispensary is fully licensed

SPRINGFIELD — A medical marijuana dispensary in downstate Marion is the first in Illinois to be fully licensed.

The dispensary, Harbory, has the distinction of being the first dispensary to receive the final “registration,” as the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation refers to it. It means the dispensary is now fully licensed to operate, according to the department.

Harbory’s CEO, Cameron Lehman, said he hopes the dispensary will be open by the end of October, although that depends on several things, including whether medical marijuana farmers have crops to sell at that time.

“We are trying to open as soon as we are able,” Lehman said.

Lehman, of St. Louis, said the dispensary, at 8195 Express Drive, was founded in partnership with his mother, Michele Koo, a St. Louis plastic surgeon, and his father, who also is a surgeon.

Several medical marijuana cultivators began growing crops this summer and hope to be able to sell their medical product before the end of the year.