BANGOR, Maine — A health care company that operates walk-in clinics in five states that specialize in qualifying people to use medical marijuana recently expanded into Maine, with locations in Bangor, Augusta, Biddeford, and a fourth planned for Auburn.

“There is such a need in the state. There are very few practitioners writing medical marijuana certifications,” Jenna McDonald, general manager for Canna Care Docs, a division of Virginia-based Med-Eval Corp., said Friday.

The walk-in clinics are relatively new to Maine, where voters first approved medical marijuana in 1999 allowing patients to grow their own supply or select a caregiver to grow it for them. In 2009, the law was expanded to include more permitted medical conditions and to allow patients to buy from eight nonprofit, government-sanctioned clinics and marijuana cultivation centers as long as a licensed medical professional certifies their need for the drug. [Read more at the Bangor Daily News]