Arkansas regulators have announced that they have formally awarded all 32 licenses for cannabis dispensaries that will operate under the state’s medical marijuana program. Officials at the Department of Finance and Administration said on Tuesday that all 32 licensees approved last month paid the required $15,000 licensing fee and have posted a $100,000 performance bond. Scott Hardin, a spokesman for the department, said the dispensaries are now authorized to begin serving patients.

Though Arkansas voters passed Amendment 98 in 2016, which legalized medical cannabis in the state, Arkansas’s health department still hasn’t issued any official medical cannabis cards to struggling residents. Due to various legislative and regulatory delays, the state offered qualifying patients the option to attain a temporary medical cannabis license to use in Oklahoma.

More than half of states have legalized marijuana either recreationally or medicinally, but there is still a stigma that cannabis is a gateway drug. That's what one professor at UA Little Rock believed, so he dug deeper into research and was surprised by his results.

“The whole topic itself is motivated by marijuana itself being a gateway drug," said Dr. Rhet Smith, Assistant Professor of Economics at UA Little Rock.

Growing up with a father in law enforcement and an ER nurse as a mother, Smith is familiar with the opioid crisis and the growing acceptance of marijuana.

"Topics of drug abuse weren't exactly foreign topics at our dinner table," Smith said.

In 2015, he began researching how local access to medical cannabis impacts opioid-related deaths.

An Arkansas panel on Wednesday named 32 companies it intends to license to sell medical marijuana, two years after voters approved its legalization and following a series of delays that have frustrated patients and advocates.

The state Medical Marijuana Commission approved the scores from an outside consultant it had hired to evaluate about 200 applications for dispensaries. The companies must pay a $15,000 licensing fee and post a $100,000 performance bond before the licenses to sell the drug are formally issued. The commission last year awarded five cultivation licenses to grow medical marijuana.

A pediatric nurse who says he's seen the positive effects of medical marijuana on his patients has been appointed to the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission.

Justin Smith, 38, was appointed to the board Monday, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported . Smith is a nurse at Arkansas Children's Hospital and has worked in pediatric care for 11 years. He replaces James Miller, who resigned last month to focus on his family and business.

Smith said he's seen cannabis products help treat children with epilepsy.

"I've seen it work with my own eyes," Smith said. "When you see that, it kind of changes your mind and perspective on things. Especially in my case, when you see it work on children, you can't really deny it has some benefit with proper application."

Arkansas' health department has yet to issue licenses to the thousands of residents approved to buy medical marijuana in the state, which is affecting patients' ability to get temporary licenses in neighboring Oklahoma.

The Arkansas Department of Health likely won't distribute medical marijuana cards until February, agency spokeswoman Meg Mirivel said. State health officials don't want residents to pay for a card they won't be able to use yet, in part because the cards must be renewed after a year, she said.

Thousands of Arkansas residents with valid medical marijuana licenses can receive a temporary medical marijuana adult license in Oklahoma, authorities said.

The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority has issued more than 33,000 patient licenses since voters overwhelmingly authorized medical cannabis in June. And KFSM reports residents of Arkansas and other states with state-issued medical marijuana licenses can apply for a temporary license in Oklahoma.

The path to legal marijuana in Arkansas has been rocky at best. Though voters in 2016 approved a medical cannabis measure granting access to patients with certain conditions, residents have seen a plethora of stumbling blocks from anti-pot Republicans and legal complainants. On Tuesday, one more hold-up was announced: the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission is delaying its designation of 20 to 32 more dispensary licenses until next year.

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission announced the five top-scoring growing centers earlier this year.

Some of those centers plan to be ready in the next few months. Osage Creek Cultivation in Berryville is one of those centers.​

Matt Trulove, with Osage Creek Cultivation. said,“We are in the dry. All the walls are sheeted. The roof’s on and complete. Beginning all the interior work.”

They plan to finish construction March 1st.

Trulove said, “Then we’re anticipating a 90 day cycle from the approval process before medicine will be available or when we’re complete. So that will be a June 1 delivery date."

Commission members scored all the growing center applications, but a consulting firm is scoring the dispensaries.​

Arkansas’ first announced cannabis testing lab will hold an open house and dedication next week as the Natural State moves closer to entering the fast-growing medical marijuana industry that is now legal in 31 states.

On Wednesday, Dec. 12, Steep Hill Arkansas has scheduled an open house for its state-of-the-art cannabis testing lab at 11711 Hermitage Road, Suite 5, in Little Rock, from 5-7 p.m. Steven DeAngelo, co-founder of Harborside, Steep Hill Laboratory, the Arc View Group, the National Cannabis Industry Association and other cannabis-related businesses and organizations, will give the dedication speech at 6 p.m.