COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Applicants to operate the first Ohio medical marijuana dispensaries will have to wait a little longer to find out whether they'll be awarded licenses by the state.

The Ohio Board of Pharmacy canceled a special meeting scheduled for Wednesday and plans to announce dispensary license winners at a its regular monthly meeting June 4-6. The agency had just announced the Wednesday meeting on Monday. Of the 376 applications submitted in November, the board can award licenses to as many as 57 sites across the state.

Board spokesman Cameron McNamee said all applications have been scored but the board is still waiting on background check information and verifying whether applicants have met all of the necessary objective criteria. One of those criteria is whether a proposed site is at least 500 feet from a school, church or other prohibited site.

"We wanted to make sure everyone meets those minimum qualifications," McNamee said.

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SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PRESS RELEASE--Empower Clinics Inc., an owner and operator of medical cannabis clinics in the U.S., has announced that Peter McDonough, one of the world’s leading brand and marketing executives, has joined its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

McDonough has more than 30 years leadership experience in building and managing some of the world’s most iconic brands. In 2015 McDonough completed his tenure as president, chief marketing officer, and chief innovation officer for Diageo North America, where his portfolio included the top two largest spirits brands in the world, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff, as well as 20 of the world’s top 100 spirits brands. With a market capitalization of $85 billion, Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol, owning renowned brands in spirits, beer and wine.

McDonough previously served as Procter & Gamble’s vice president of European marketing for Duracell Batteries and Braun Appliances. Prior to his overseas work, he was Gillette’s head of North American marketing for the company’s flagship blade/razor and personal care business and introduced market-leading brands such as Mach3 Turbo and Venus Razors. Earlier in his career, he was director of North American marketing at Black & Decker where he was involved in launching the DeWalt Power Tool Company. McDonough also has Board of Director experience relevant to Empower, as he currently serves on the advisory board of Viridian Capital Advisors, a financial advisory firm dedicated to the cannabis industry.

“Peter McDonough brings Empower a strong base of expertise in building and managing global brands, along with a current and direct understanding of the medical cannabis market,” said Craig Snyder, Empower CEO. “As we look to rapidly expand Empower’s brand and value proposition throughout North America and beyond, Peter’s experience will be invaluable to our Board and to the entire company.”

“Building a respected medical cannabis business requires an understanding of consumer motivations related to cannabis and its role in improving a patient’s health and well-being,” McDonough said. “As the benefits of medical cannabis become clearer, Empower is uniquely positioned to advance treatment in many important areas and build brand leadership based on best-in-class care for our patients. As a Board member, I’m excited to work with Empower to ensure our products lead the way in serving patients and position the organization among the industry’s most admired companies.”

McDonough is an alumnus of Cornell University and holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business.

Walker, Michigan – May 21, 2018 – PRESS RELEASE – Pipp Horticulture (a division of Pipp Mobile Storage Systems, Inc.), a provider of space-saving, multi-level mobile cultivation systems, announced that it has acquired Greenhaus Industries Inc., an innovator and manufacturer of multi-level cultivation and drying systems designed for the vertical farming industry. The principals of Greenhaus, who will remain with the organization, have combined over 25 years of experience in indoor cultivation design, operations and product development. Pipp Horticulture and Greenhaus have been strategic partners since 2017 and have already completed numerous projects together across the United States and Canada.

“This union will allow us to combine Pipp’s engineering, manufacturing and installation expertise with Greenhaus’ extensive vertical cultivation and horticulture knowledge, to rapidly expand in North America and abroad,” said Craig Umans, CEO of Pipp Mobile Storage Systems Inc. “Combined, we are poised to become a leader in this emerging industry."

Vertical farming is projected to be over a $6 billion industry by 2023. Recognizing the potential in this market, Pipp Horticulture has developed a movable, multi-layer growing system, allowing indoor agriculture operations to stack grow trays to maximize its cubic and square footprint and increase yields.

“Vertical farming is the future. One indoor acre equals four to six outdoor acres while having a higher and more consistent yield, protection from adverse weather and increased bio-security,” said Michael Williamson, founding partner of Greenhaus Industries. “With Pipp Horticulture, we are thrilled to help create more efficient and sustainable facilities for food and cannabis crops.

“We are excited that this acquisition will bring us one step closer to becoming a one-stop-shop for our customers, providing turnkey solutions for their cultivation needs,” said Craig Umans, CEO of Pipp Mobile Storage Systems Inc.

Top photo courtesy of Pipp Horticulture

PRESS RELEASE - Thrive Agritech, Inc., a technology company focused on leading innovations in LED horticulture lighting, has announced that it has received an additional $2 million in equity capital to accelerate the development and deployment of its LED technology in controlled environment agriculture. The investment round was led by Rose Capital, a New York-based institutional investor. In conjunction with the investment round, Rose Capital has also joined Thrive’s Board of Directors.

The financing round–and new partnership with Rose Capital–follows an exceptional year for Thrive Agritech, which saw a rapidly expanding customer base with lighting installations in greenhouses, vertical farms and cannabis production facilities across North America.

Rose Capital noted, “We are excited about this investment based on the extraordinary customer adoption that Thrive has experienced since its first product launch in 2015. Thrive has established a successful track record of commercializing best-in-class LED lighting products–having launched a new product every year since the company’s inception. We look forward to partnering with Thrive to continue to break down traditional industry barriers and commercialize some of the most innovative products in the global horticultural market.”

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that food production must increase by 70 percent over the next forty years to satisfy increasing demand. The total market in North America for LED lighting solutions for greenhouses is expected to grow from 2.5 million square feet in 2015 to more than 50 million square feet in 2021. In response to these trends, companies like Thrive are introducing high output lighting solutions to change the efficiency dynamic for global growers.

“Our biggest challenge today is responding to the overwhelming number of opportunities with which we are being confronted,” said Thrive Agritech CEO Brian Bennett. “As we close this investment round, we will be aggressively hiring sales, marketing and operations support, and leveraging Rose Capital’s expertise, to exceed the expectations of our customers and further develop our product portfolio and core technologies. Additionally, we will be expanding operations into Europe to capture growth in the emerging greenhouse supplemental lighting market.”

Thrive Agritech was founded at the Y Combinator accelerator in Silicon Valley, with a mission to enhance sustainability for controlled environment agriculture. The company’s industry leading energy efficient lighting products have already made significant reductions in the carbon footprint from older lighting technologies. Further, all Thrive Agritech products have an optimized horticulture light spectrum, high reliability, and most importantly improve efficiency and longevity of horticultural crop growth.