MOORHEAD – The metro area’s first medical marijuana dispensary is expected to open here this summer.

The CEO of Minnesota Medical Solutions, which is licensed to operate four dispensaries in the state, said he expects to sign a lease on a Moorhead location in the next week or two.

“We found three sites, and we’re in the final stages of negotiating one of them,” said the CEO, Dr. Kyle Kingsley. He declined to reveal the site’s address.

The dispensary will offer marijuana products to patients suffering from terminal illness, cancer, HIV/AIDS, seizures and glaucoma, among other medical conditions, according to the state Department of Health.

Kingsley hopes to open the dispensary by the end of July.

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The dispensary will sell oils, tinctures and pills made from marijuana extract for medical use, he said. The plant form of marijuana will not be sold.

Only patients with qualifying conditions, their parents and registered caregivers will be allowed in the store, he said.

Kingsley said he will schedule an “open forum” before opening the Moorhead dispensary so people here can learn more about how his business will operate.

City Manager Michael Redlinger said he does not anticipate “any problems or issues” with the dispensary.

“We fully expect it’s going to be an operation that will be like other commercial medical operations,” Redlinger said.

Minnesota Medical Solutions, one of two licensed to run marijuana dispensaries in the state, plans to open one in Minneapolis on July 1 and another in Rochester “shortly thereafter. “And then it’ll be Moorhead,” Kingsley said.

Kingsley said his company began harvesting marijuana plants at his Otsego greenhouse farm this week.