A sign with a green cross directs customers to the entrance of The Health Center, a cannabis dispensary in Denver. (Vince Chandler, The Denver Post)

Delaware’s medical marijuana patients getting more options

NEW CASTLE, Del. — Delaware’s medical marijuana program is continuing to grow.

Delaware opened its first medical marijuana dispensary, the First State Compassion Center, in Wilmington in 2015. First State also won the contract for a dispensary in Sussex County, which opened this past May.

Meanwhile, the program’s oversight panel was to get an update Tuesday on plans to open new dispensaries in New Castle and in Kent County.

New York-based Columbia Care, which operates medical marijuana facilities in five states and the District of Columbia, was awarded the contract for the Kent County dispensary, which is expected to open in the spring.

The state also is moving ahead with plans for a spring 2018 opening of an additional compassion center in New Castle County, to be run by Compassionate Care Research Institute.