By REBECCA EVERETT
@GazetteRebecca
Daily Hampshire Gazette
NORTHAMPTON — At the New England Treatment Access dispensary Thursday, over 100 people with a variety of ailments preregistered to buy medical marijuana, and also got a first look at the renovated space and the strict security in place.
The NETA dispensary will be ready to sell products that can be inhaled, swallowed and even applied topically as soon as mid-September, said Norton Arbelaez, a standards and practices consultant for NETA.
“From what we’re seeing there is an incredible amount of anticipation,” Arbelaez said while patients stepped into the lobby of the dispensary and looked around.
When the products are dried, cured and prepared for sale, he said, “we won’t be able to see all of western Massachusetts in one day.”
That’s why the dispensary is opening three days a week, starting Thursday, to allow people to preregister. Arbelaez said those who sign-up as patients in advance will be “in the front of the line” for products when they become available. The facility at 118 Conz St. is open for preregistration Thursdays and Fridays from noon to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Over 100 had visited the facility by 5 p.m. Thursday and Arbelaez said over 50 had preregistered at a meet and greet NETA hosted at Fairfield Inn & Suites last week. NETA plans to be able to treat 4,000 patients in western Massachusetts, growing the cannabis in Franklin and dispensing products in the Northampton location. It also plans to open a dispensary in Brookline.
While the dispensary was welcoming future patients to the facility Thursday, the city’s Board of Health was considering whether to adopt regulations to add onto the current state regulations governing dispensaries.
After reading the state laws and local regulations passed by Brookline and Needham, the three board members present seemed skeptical that adding stricter regulations or requiring more information from NETA would do anything to improve safety or prevent other issues.
Board member Suzanne Smith said they were not in a position to anticipate what problems might arise from the new industry, and adding regulations would be “needlessly bureaucratic.”
They agreed instead to ask a representative of NETA to attend a meeting soon to explain things like home deliveries and the educational material for patients, and how they will ensure the marijuana products are not available to minors.
The security at the Conz Street dispensary is tight, as mandated by state law.
Patients had to be buzzed in through the front door, sign-in and show identification and medical marijuana cards to a staff member, and then be buzzed into the stylish lobby and sales room.
Arbelaez, who owns two medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, said that it is one of the best-looking facilities he has been in.
In the lobby the preregistrants were greeted by another staff member who talked with them and provided educational materials about the different strains of marijuana and products available.
After they provided identification and had their medical marijuana card verified through the state’s “virtual gateway,” they were officially registered patients of NETA, Arbelaez said.
When the dispensary is operational patients will approach staff members in “patient stations” — arranged like bank tellers along one side of the room — to have their identities verified and purchase products. The products are all made in the Franklin facility.
Arbelaez said the Northampton site will employ about 25 people. Every employee working in the state’s medical marijuana industry must undergo a criminal background check and be registered with the state Department of Public Health.
The state’s first medical marijuana dispensary, Alternative Therapies Group, opened in June in Salem.
NETA is headed by Executive Director Arnon Vered of Swampscott and regional director for western Massachusetts Leslie Tarr Laurie of Pelham.
Rebecca Everett can be reached at [email protected].
