Medical marijuana manufacturer heads for I.C. | Business News

The Iowa Department of Public Health has allowed the company to transfer its license to manufacture medical marijuana products from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City, where the firm also will open a dispensary for consumers this fall.

“ICC MFG has asked to relocate its manufacturing facility to Iowa City,” Owen Parker, program manager for Iowa’s Office of Medical Cannabidiol, said in a meeting Friday of the Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Board. “IDPH did grant that approval and local zoning authority has been provided. They will have operation to begin in 2021.”

The manufacturing site under consideration is in an industrial zone on the south end of Scott Boulevard on Iowa City’s southeast side, officials said.

Iowa Cannabis’ Iowa City dispensary — one of five in the state — was supposed to open by July 1, but the state gave the company an extension to start selling products Oct. 1. The company will open a dispensary in Council Bluffs at the same time and has operated a Waterloo dispensary since 2018.

The Iowa City dispensary will be in the strip mall by Harbor Freight and La Regia Taqueria, city officials told state Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City.

More than 6,000 Iowans have qualified to be in the medical marijuana program, which addresses a dozen different conditions including Parkinson’s disease, cancer and autism.