Medical marijuana dispensary Bloom Medicinals is shown Dec. 10, 2019, at 410 Realtor Ave. in Texarkana, Arkansas. The business will open Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020, according to a company executive. Photo by Hunt Mercier / Texarkana Gazette.

TEXARKANA, Ark. — Bloom Medicinals, a medical marijuana dispensary, will open its Texarkana location this week.

The business will open at noon Wednesday, a company executive said via email. Bloom Medicinals is a Florida-based chain of dispensaries with locations in several states. The Texarkana dispensary will be in the former Vincent's liquor store building at 410 Realtor Ave.

Bloom Medicinals joins Red River Remedy as the second medical marijuana dispensary in Texarkana. Owned by an Arkansas-based group, Red River Remedy opened Friday in the former Electric Cowboy night club at 4423 E. Broad St. Each of the dispensaries has paid a city license fee of $7,500.

State law restricts patients' use of medical marijuana. A doctor must certify that a patient has one of about 20 qualifying medical conditions — including cancer, severe arthritis and post-traumatic stress disorder — before they can receive a registration card.

Patients must buy medical marijuana from dispensaries and cannot grow their own. Qualified registered patients are allowed to purchase up to 2.5 ounces from a dispensary every 14 days. Using cannabis is prohibited in public or around children.

The state Medical Marijuana Commission divided Arkansas into eight geographical zones and licensed up to four dispensaries in each. Miller County is in Zone 8, a region of Southwest Arkansas that also includes Calhoun, Clark, Columbia, Dallas, Hempstead, Howard, Lafayette, Little River, Nevada, Ouachita, Pike, Sevier and Union counties.

Two of Zone 8's dispensaries are slated for Texarkana, one for El Dorado and the fourth for Arkadelphia.

AR Cannabis Clinic on Jefferson Avenue opened in October. The clinic does not diagnose medical conditions. Based on medical records, it certifies that patients have conditions diagnosed elsewhere that qualify them for medical marijuana use.