Public Consulting Group Inc will be tasked with grading 203 companies that have passed preliminary examinations to become marijuana dispensaries. The top 32 will get to roll in the green.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - A significant decision in the process of rolling out medical marijuana made this week with Arkansas naming a consulting company to help determine who can sell it. It has been 23 months since voters gave their approval in the 2014 election. Officials and advocates say the decision should clear the way for the product to get into patients' hands.

The Alcohol Beverage Control division of the Department of Finance & Administration reached a deal with Boston-based Public Consulting Group Inc.

They will be tasked with grading 203 companies that have passed preliminary examinations to become marijuana dispensaries. The top 32 will get to roll in the green.

They just need to meet over the phone with the five members of the medical marijuana commission.

“We're thinking that meeting will take place within the next week to two weeks,” said Scott Hardin, spokesman for DFA. “We're really looking at dispensary licenses being issued in November.”

That will spark the process that has so far been bogged down by litigation. Potential growers had to withstand a lawsuit over the way the commission selected them, but with an outside company handling the sellers, it will soon be all systems grow.

“I think we're getting close,” said Alex Gray, attorney and spokesman for the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Association – a trade group. “I think a lot of the cultivation facilities the construction is underway. I anticipate that there will be product that the public will be able to access by March 1.”

While we all know a watched pot never boils, a watched pot plant can grow quickly. That could be a relief for patients after what will be a two-plus year delay on a promise from voters.

“It can happen fast. And I've heard anywhere from like 30 days you can get product ready to be sold,” said Gray who added that some dispensaries will be able to import already growing plants. They will make the drug available for sale quickly after opening.

“For Arkansans I'd say 'we're finally there,'” said Hardin. “From here to when really the first dispensary opens its doors this should be smooth sailing.”