DISCUSSING OPERATION — Jason Shipley and Michelle Caldwell, brand ambassadors for FRX Health, greet visitors in the dispensary’s front waiting room before patients make their way back to the vault to speak with a pharmacy regarding recommended medical marijuana options. -- Stephanie Ujhelyi

EAST LIVERPOOL — As FRX Health wrapped up construction on the cinder block vault for its East Liverpool medical marijuana dispensary, Rebecca Myers got a bit of good news.

Myers, the founder and CEO for the company that has the only dispensary located in Columbiana County, was notified that the group’s Pennsylvania license for its new grow facility had been approved after an extended wait.

That was a lucky break for the research and development focused biotech company, which is more geared toward offering innovation health solutions that are tailored for multiple disease states than getting high.

Hundreds of patients already have visited the pharmacist-led and patient-centered delivery model located at 1865 Dresden Ave., according to Myers.

Budtenders need not apply.

The dispensary is run by a pharmacist and staffed with a focus on educating patients through representatives who lead them through personalized journal through the dispensary’s medical products.

“We are extremely excited to see our dispensary open to the people of East Liverpool and to the surrounding communities. As a pharmacist, I recognize the benefits of this new therapeutic class for pain treatment and numerous additional disease states,” explains Joseph Jeffries, who serves as the store’s pharmacy director.

The company has a processing center at 2000 Harvey Ave. and a cultivation center across the border in Farrell, Pa., “We will create the medicine there, and then it will be distributed around the state through the licensed dispensaries,” Myers said.

During the East Liverpool dispensary’s four-day hiatus, the facility underwent a “facility upgrade.” A post to the company website explained how the facility upgrade was necessary to expand their product offerings and better serve patients.

Current offerings at the business include pills, tinctures and edibles, but no flower under Ohio law.

The East Liverpool dispensary joins the growing number of such facilities across the state. That list includes CY-Plus on Main Street in Wintersville, which in January made the first legal sale of marijuana in the state. The village also is home to a second dispensary, Ohio Valley Natural Relief LLC, located on Canton Road.

Myers said that the company has been forming partnerships with research and educational facilities like Marshall University in the hopes of expanding the knowledge of how cannabis works. “We are all about doing that research,” she said, adding that “what interests them is creating therapies.”

Growing up in Lawrence County, Pa., she recounts how she was contacted by East Liverpool Mayor Ryan Stovall after he learned that she was looking for a site to open up shop. Myers is not necessary what one expects as the mind behind the mission.

A former Bronx prosecutor who taught business law at the City University of New York and worked for Carl Ichan, she admitted that she was intrigued by the thought of bringing an innovative, new industry of East Liverpool, while repurposing some viable, vacant structures.

Her interest in the subject was born out of personal experience, this one as an observer as a young cousin was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and was wasting away until he was put on a cannabis drop. “My hope is that the research will be transformed; we have big ambitions,” she explained.

Despite popular belief, the dispensary’s customers are not jittery, hoodie-wearing millennials, but 60-year-old women looking for relief from chemotherapy side effects encountered during cancer treatments.

“Ten percent of our patients are even under age 30,” she explained.

Hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, with additional information available at their website, www.frxohio.com, or by calling (234) 718-8899.