AIRMONT, N.Y., July 29, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Touro College has announced that it is supporting Rockland County-based CanniCare's application for one of five media marijuana licenses to be issued by the New York State Dept. of Health (DOH). 

If CanniCare is selected, Touro would provide the company with research into medicinal cannabis. 

"Our college is supportive of medicinal development and research," said Alan H. Kadish, president of the Touro College System. "There is still a great deal of research to be conducted on the medical application of cannabis and we are excited by the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way. We will also offer CanniCare advice on the clinical use of the medicine along the way."    

New York's medical-marijuana program is slated to be up and running by January 2016. But whilecompanies have been scrambling to show they meet the state's criteria to grow and dispense marijuana, little has been done to give doctors the tools they need to register patients to get them the drug. Even more worrisome, many doctors say they wouldn't recommend marijuana to their patients.

"This has been my biggest concern," state Sen. Diane Savino said Wednesday, speaking at a meeting on the logistics of getting the state's medical cannabis program up and running. "We don't have a single trained physician. They are the gatekeepers of all of this," she said at the panel, hosted by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.

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Syracuse, N.Y. -- A state legislator who sponsored the law legalizing medical marijuana in New York says the state is being too secretive about the process it will use to award licenses to grow and distribute medical pot.

The state health department is expected to award licenses to five applicants by the end of this week.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfriend, D-Manhattan, told Capital New York the state should publicly release documents providing more details about the 43 businesses that have applied for licenses.

NEW YORK - When Matt and Jen Osmun opened their vape shop in Bethel, Connecticut, last December, they didn't expect to get a boost from the local medical marijuana outlet.

"Sales are going really well, and getting better every month," said Jen Osmun, who started the business with her husband, a former plumber, after he was injured in an accident. Most customers at Grassy Plain Vape & Smoke buy electronic cigarettes to help them quit smoking tobacco, but a growing number are referred by medical marijuana commissaries in the neighborhood – the nearest is about five miles away.

ALBANY—The state health department is scheduled to award licenses to grow and dispense medical marijuana by the end of the week, but one of the bill's sponsors believes the process should be more transparent.

So far, the public knows the names of the 43 businesses that have submitted applications to manufacture and dispense medical marijuana in the state, but little else.

“We’ve done what we believe to be the best application, and we think that based upon what we know regarding our application, it should be well received by the state and let the chips fall where they may,” he said.

“So we are patiently, sometimes nervously, waiting for an answer from the state,” Daniel said. “Fingers crossed, toes crossed and legs crossed.”

Daniel and his team at Alternative Medicine Associates filed plans for a $25 million development project to convert the former Tyson plant in Buffalo into a medical marijuana production facility.

Though entrepreneurs have successfully grown pot in New York for decades, companies seeking to legally produce marijuana as medicine are partnering with professional trainers to teach employees how to cultivate the plant properly, in keeping with new state regulations.

Firms selected to receive one of five New York medical marijuana licenses will need to launch their operations quickly to meet a state deadline to have products available by Jan. 1. Forty-three applicants are vying for the coveted licenses, which the state is expected to issue this month.