WESTFIELD – The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is in the process of winnowing 100 applications to establish and operate medical marijuana dispensaries in the Bay State and one of organizations competing for one of the 35 licenses to be issued is based in nearby Easthampton.
In May, 2013, the Westfield City Council adopted a one-year moratorium for dispensaries in the city at the request of the Planning Board to allow time for the board to research and create a draft ordinance for consideration by the council.
In Southwick, a proposal by a New York-based organization, Hampden Care, to use idle greenhouses to produce medical marijuana was rejected by the town’s Planning Board. The 3-2 vote by the board to approve a special permit to grow marijuana at the Hudson Drive greenhouses last used to grow roses failed because a super-majority was needed to approve the permit.
In Easthampton, Kind Medical Inc. has been established with principals who include Westfield physician Joseph P. Keenan as president and former Pittsfield State Sen. Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr., and proposes to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Easthampton.
Nuciforo said that the new company has plans to operate in a former mill building at 142 Pleasant Street.
Nuciforo pointed out that no licenses have been awarded but said that each of the Commonwealth’s 14 counties will have to have at least one medical marijuana dispensary. He said that since the state’s population is concentrated at the eastern end of the Commonwealth “our guess is that Franklin, Berkshire, Hampshire and Hampden (counties) will end up with one” dispensary and he hopes that Kind Medical will be the dispensary in Hampshire County.
He said that the entire operation will be contained in the mill building with growing operations upstairs and the actual dispensary on the ground floor.
Nuciforo said that each dispensary must control the entire process “from seed to sale” and will also have to provide marijuana in a non-smokable form known in the regulations as marijuana infused product which could be in an ointment, oil or edible product.
In other states which allow medical use of marijuana, he said, “about half (the product) in many dispensaries is non-smokable cannabis products.”
Nuciforo is optimistic that Kind Medical will be awarded a license and said “we’ve put together a strong team” and added that “we thought it necessary to build a team that included medical professionals” such as Keenan, a well established and well respected local physician.
He said the team “will adhere to the spirit and letter of the regulations” and could be ready to begin operations late next year.
“If we do get the license we would like to be able to offer services in the late summer or early fall of 2014,” he said.
