BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s second medical marijuana grower announced it has started making its products to the state’s dispensaries for sale to patients. Ilera Holistic Healthcare is the company that grows marijuana for Southern University’s agricultural center. Southern said Wednesday that Ilera has launched its therapeutic cannabis brand, called AYO. The university says it’s the first historically Black college to have its own brand of medical cannabis products. Only the agricultural centers at Southern and Louisiana State University are authorized to grow medical marijuana in Louisiana, and only nine dispensaries can provide it to patients. LSU’s grower has been selling products since August 2019.
The release of Southern’s medical cannabis comes after Louisiana lawmakers greatly expanded the medical marijuana program last month, to allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana for any patient they believe it would help, and to remove restrictions on which doctors can recommend cannabis.
The expansion takes effect in August.
