Jim Thorpe borough may be joining the growing list of municipalities hoping to get ahead of the curve on medical marijuana.

During a council workshop Thursday night, the governing body discussed drafting an ordinance regulating where and how medical marijuana could be grown or dispensed if the situation ever arises in Jim Thorpe.“Many municipalities have already rushed to get something on the books,” Jim Thorpe Planning Commission Chairman Louis Hall said.Borough Manager Maureen Sterner lives in Tunkhannock Township, Monroe County, and said that municipality has already received a conditional use application for a growing operation without an ordinance on the books.“By law, we have to allow for it somewhere in the borough,” Sterner said. “We don’t know of anything planned for Jim Thorpe at this time, but it’s better to get ahead of the game,” Sterner said.The state has received hundreds of applications from hopeful growers and dispensaries and while it has published a list of the applicants, the prospective facility locations remain unknown.In response, Bethlehem Township, for example, passed an ordinance in March limiting growers to a secure, indoor building with electronic locking systems and electronic surveillance.It also limited the building’s size to a maximum 20,000 square feet with space for storage of seeds and lab testing.Emmaus Borough also adopted an ordinance allowing for dispensaries in commercial zones, while growers would be considered industrial and light industrial businesses.It also prohibits facilities within 1,000 feet of a school.The state expects to award 27 dispensary permits and 12 grower/processor permits by the end of June.Only two grower/processor permits will be available to the 10-county region including Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Wayne, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties.Medical marijuana could be available to patients by May 2018 in pill oil, vapor, ointment or liquid form. The law prohibits a form of marijuana that could be smoked.Patients must have one of 17 medical conditions to make them eligible to receive the drug.Jim Thorpe’s planning commission is working on the ordinance for the borough.“I gave them some sample ordinances, although they are still scarce at this point,” Sterner said. “That gives our planning commission of some idea on how to move forward at this point.”