Since Shayne Lynn opened his first medical marijuana dispensary in June 2013, demand for products has eclipsed his five-year business plan.

The executive director of Champlain Valley Dispensary and Southern Vermont Wellness is opening a 28,000-square-foot cultivation and research center in Milton that will double capacity for the number of patients the two dispensaries can serve.

“After two years, we are basically in our fifth-year business plan,” Lynn says. “That was the impetus here. I didn’t want to get constrained again.”

Demand for medical pot for patients with cancer, HIV, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, wasting syndrome, severe pain, severe nausea and seizures has outpaced projections of lawmakers who crafted the original medical pot law and dispensary founders. Growth has stemmed from perennial expansion of the law and word of mouth from enhanced confidence in safety and reliability of dispensary products, according to those involved in the industry. [Red more at the Burlington Free Press]