A company has started growing medical marijuana at a new dispensary in West Quincy, but the facility won't open to the public until September.

A company has started growing medical marijuana at a new dispensary in West Quincy, but the facility isn't expected to open to the public until September.

Donna Rheaume, a spokeswoman for Ermont Inc., the owner of the dispensary at 216 Ricciuti Drive, said the company got approval on May 5 from the state’s Department of Public Health to start cultivating marijuana on-site.

“The cultivation process is underway, and that takes about three or four months,” Rheaume said.

In February, Jack Hudson, Ermont’s owner, said he had hoped to open the dispensary in June. But Rheaume, on Tuesday, said the company had to wait for state approval before it could start growing marijuana.

The medical marijuana law, which was approved by voters in 2012 and went into effect in 2013, allows patients with debilitating conditions who get permission from a doctor to buy marijuana from a dispensary, or to grow it themselves if they can't get to the dispensary.

Only six dispensaries have opened so far – in Salem, Brockton, Northampton, Ayer, Brookline and Lowell. Eleven other dispensaries, including Ermont's facility, have received preliminary approval from the state’s Department of Public Health but still need final certification before they can sell their product.

Ermont initially had planned to open the West Quincy dispensary, located next to the Quincy Auto Auction and the Granite Links Golf Course, in the summer of 2014. However, the opening was pushed back repeatedly due to delays in the state’s licensing process and financing challenges.

The Ermont facility – 36,404-square-feet in size – will employ 25 workers in the first year. Hudson has projected the company's first-year revenue will range from $3.5 million to nearly $8 million.

Hudson, who moved from his home in Provincetown to a residential complex off Ricciuti Drive, has invested in stringent security measures at the dispensary site. Hudson hired a security consultant, The Winmill Group of Virginia, and fortified the building with cameras, key-card door locks and a security guard station that will be manned around-the-clock.

On the ballot this November, Massachusetts voters will likely decide whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Hudson said the Quincy dispensary will only sell medical marijuana for qualifying patients, even if the recreational measure passes.

Ermont has applied for two more licenses to open up dispensaries elsewhere in Massachusetts as part of the state’s Department of Public Health second round of applications. The company has not identified locations of the new sites yet, but said it won’t propose a second site in Quincy.

Local towns that have been identified by other owners as potential locations for dispensaries include Bridgewater, Middleborough, Rockland, Norwell and Sharon.