Mercer County medical marijuana dispensary gets the “green light”

GREEN VALLEY, W.Va. (WVVA) - A Mercer County medical marijuana dispensary opened up shop Monday as the first in southern W.Va. outside of Beckley.

Greenlight Medical Marijuana Dispensary’s grand opening came more than five years after Gov. Jim justice (R-W.Va.) signed medical marijuana into state law. Mercer County’s Board of health voiced concerns in previous years regarding the approval of a dispensary in the county -- before signing off on the location earlier in 2020.

“If you’re worried about what we do here or worried about, you know, the products we carry and what the impact is going to be -- I encourage you to come down and introduce yourself to us and we can show you a little bit about what we do,” said Casey Efting, Greenlight’s Director of Retail Operations.

The consensus among customers on opening day way clear: the opportunity to get their medicine closer to home will save a lot of money on gas these days. For potential new patients however, qualifying for a W.Va. medical marijuana card can be cost-prohibitive.

“My problem right now is I don’t have the $120 to get it,” said Steven Vestal. “Once I have that then it’s going to be super easy, it’s only three steps...For someone who suffers post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, I’ve tried several medicines in my life to try and cope with those things. Cannabis is one of, if not the only thing to help in such a strong way without having any bad side effects.”

Greenlight is based out of Missouri -- and plans to open facilities in Beckley and Bluefield, W.Va. in the coming months.