Less than 24 hours after the Cannabis Control Commission activated its licensing portal on Monday, more than 200 hopefuls have begun their applications for recreational marijuana businesses.

It’s the first major step toward the opening of the first adult-use cannabis retail stores on July 1.

RELATED: Cannabis Business Licensing Begins in Massachusetts

Shawn Collins, executive director of the commission, told commissioners Tuesday morning that 218 applications were started, and that the new online system was working well.

“There were no blips. There was no stress. So we are very confident that as folks continue to interact with our system, it will perform as expected,” Collins said.

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ANN ARBOR, MI – Few older adults use medical marijuana, a new national poll finds, but the majority support its use if a doctor recommends it, and might talk to their own doctor about it if they developed a serious health condition.

Four out five of poll respondents between the ages of 50 and 80 said they support allowing medical marijuana if it’s recommended by a physician. Forty percent support allowing marijuana use for any reason.

And two-thirds say the government should do more to study the drug’s health effects, according to the new findings from the National Poll on Healthy Aging.

While more than two-thirds of those polled said they thought that marijuana can ease pain, about half said they believed prescription pain medications were more effective than marijuana.

The poll was conducted in a nationally representative sample of 2,007 Americans between the ages of 50 and 80 by the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. It was sponsored by AARP and Michigan Medicine, U-M’s academic medical center.

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Almost five years after New Hampshire passed its medical marijuana law, nearly 400 residents of Cheshire and Sullivan counties acquired cannabis under the program in 2017, according to state data. A bill that recently passed the N.H. Senate could shorten their travel times to and from dispensaries.

Senate Bill 388, which must go before the House to become law, authorizes the creation of two additional dispensaries, one of which would be in Cheshire or Sullivan counties.

New Hampshire’s medical marijuana law, which has been in effect since 2013, legalized the use of cannabis for a limited number of medical conditions and with strict permitting. It authorized four dispensaries across the state, which ultimately led to the opening of dispensaries in Lebanon and Plymouth, both in Grafton County; Dover, in Strafford County; and Merrimack, in Hillsborough County.

In addition to a dispensary in Sullivan or Cheshire counties, the legislation would also establish a new dispensary in Carroll, Coos or Grafton counties.

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Micron Waste Technologies Inc. is developing aerobic digesters designed to take food waste and extract clean water from it that can be reused or disposed of in municipal sewer systems, while leaving compostable biosolids behind.

Recently, Micron partnered with medical producer Aurora Cannabis to try adapting that technology to handle cannabis waste in a contained, compact and environmentally sensitive way that meets Health Canada restrictions on disposal.

“What we’re trying to say is that we have this technology, that we’re working with Aurora (on) to treat cannabis waste on site, make sure all the cannabis components are removed from the waste stream, and at the same time recycle water back into the system,” said Micron president Alfred Wong.

Wong said estimates are that Canada’s industry would generate about 6,000 tonnes a year of waste by 2020. 

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