BATON ROUGE - Samples from products for the first release of the LSU AgCenter's medicinal marijuana program were collected for testing by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and, as of last week, were cleared for release.

The batch was produced by LSU sub-contractor GB Sciences of Louisiana, LLC (LSU-GBSL).

GB Sciences, one of the sanctioned growers, coordinated with pharmacies to start delivering medical marijuana Tuesday.

“We are pleased to announce that LSU-GBSL's final medical marijuana product has passed all testing and is cleared for immediate release to the medical marijuana pharmacies,” Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain said. “We look forward to continuing our working relationship with LSU-GBSL and SU-ADB/ILERA as we move into the next phase of the program. We also want to thank everyone who has worked tirelessly from inception through production and testing to make this a reality.”

Last week, a random sample of the medical marijuana final product was tested for homogeneity, potency and contaminants.

The other licensed grower, Southern University, and its sub-contractor, Advanced Biomedics, LLC, doing business as Ilera Hollistic Healthcare, received authority to begin growing medical marijuana on July 22.

Officials say standard operating procedures have been approved and a Phase 1 facility is ready to begin the process of planting seeds.