In this Nov. 30, 2018 photo, medical marijuana dispensary owner Chance Gilbert displays some of the marijuana he's grown at the Oklahoma Roots dispensary in the bedroom community of Shawnee, about 40 miles east of Oklahoma City. The roll out of statewide medical and recreational programs typically is a grindingly slow process that can take years. Not so in Oklahoma, a Bible Belt state that moved with lightning speed once voters approved medical cannabis in June, 2018. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)

After more than two years of litigation and delays, marijuana was sold legally on Friday in Arkansas for the first time since the drug was criminalized here in 1923.

Doctors Orders RX, a Hot Spring dispensary, had a soft opening on Friday. Expecting long lines and limited product, the dispensary plans to open its doors to patients Saturday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., a company spokesman said Friday afternoon.

Due to glitches with the state-mandated tracking software, timing of the opening was in question, but the dispensary served a patient on Friday once the issues were resolved.

A second Hot Springs dispensary, Green Springs Medical, will open at 10 a.m. Monday, CEO Dragan Vicentic said Friday.

The price of cannabis will range from $395 to $420 an ounce, depending on the retailer. Smaller quantities will be available.

EARLIER

Arkansas' first medical marijuana dispensary will open its doors for business within the next three days, company officials told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, ending a more than two-year delay to the drug’s implementation in the Natural State.

A spokesman for Doctors Orders RX, a Hot Springs dispensary, said the retailer plans to open as soon as it resolves glitches with the state-mandated tracking software — potentially this weekend. The dispensary is located at 4893 Malvern Ave. in Hot Springs.

A second dispensary plans to open at 10 a.m. Monday, its CEO told the newspaper on Friday. Green Springs Medical received final approval to open from state regulators on Friday. It is located at 309 Seneca St. in Hot Springs.

The drug will be in short supply at the start, but cultivators expect additional harvests in the coming weeks. Prices will also be high at first, but industry leaders expect them to decrease over time as they have in other states once markets matured.

A company spokesman said Doctors Orders will initially charge $420 per ounce of dry flower, which is typically purchased in smaller increments like an eighth of an ounce ($52.50). Green Springs Medical will charge $395 per ounce or $15 per gram, according to CEO Dragan Vicentic.

Both dispensaries cautioned patients to expect long lines and waits for the first few weeks that the drug is available.

Arkansans voted to legalize cannabis for medical use in 2016, approving Amendment 98 to the Arkansas Constitution, but legal and bureaucratic roadblocks have slowed the rollout of the program.

In total, the state has issued 32 dispensary licenses, and five growing permits. Aside from the two Hot Springs dispensaries, the other 30 are in varying stages of construction or preparation to open.

Arkansas is the 33rd state with a medical marijuana program.

Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.