Pubdate: Tue, 03 Sep 2013
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Copyright: 2013 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.philly.com/inquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Author: Jan Hefler

TOWN OFFICIALS COME FULL CIRCLE IN BACKING MARIJUANA CLINIC

A small borough that rejected plans for a marijuana clinic more than 
two years ago now will become the home of South Jersey's second 
dispensary. The Compassionate Sciences dispensary is expected to open 
early next year in Bellmawr in Camden County, four years after the 
Garden State legalized the drug for medical use.

Bellmawr, a 3-square-mile town with 12,000 people, situated along a 
popular South Jersey Shore route, had been approached by another 
dispensary operator, Compassionate Care Foundation, in 2011. At that 
time, Mayor Frank Filipek said that he and the police chief and other 
officials had grave reservations and told the operator they would not 
support the proposal.

"It didn't feel right. I was against it," he said. Filipek said that 
he feared "addicts hanging around" the facility and marijuana being 
freely sold to anyone who walked in. No one wants that when they're 
raising children, he said.

But now, he said he realizes there are stringent rules, including 
24-hour video security surveillance and restrictions that limit the 
drug to only very sick people who have registered with the state and 
who have a doctor's prior approval.

"There's nothing I could do to stop it anyway, if they abide by all 
the laws," Filipek said.

But two years ago, Compassionate Care was given the boot. The 
dispensary operators gave up trying to convince Bellmawr officials 
and tried to open shop in Westampton, Burlington County. But its 
plans again were rejected.

Just as the dispensary operators were about to file an already 
written lawsuit, Egg Harbor Township, an Atlantic City bedroom 
community, welcomed them. The facility, in a former casino warehouse, 
is expected to become South Jersey's first dispensary within the next 
two months.

(Several of the six preliminarily approved dispensaries in the state 
have "Compassion" in their names, a nod to the state's Compassionate 
Use Medical Marijuana Act, adopted in January 2010. Some patients, 
however, say the program has not been administered in a compassionate 
fashion. Delays in the program and rules that lack common sense, they 
say, have resulted in only about 120 patients receiving cannabis so 
far. So far only one dispensary has opened.)

The Bellmawr dispensary expects to serve 3,000 patients when it 
reaches full capacity. Its operators say it is perfectly situated, 
just off the N.J. Turnpike, Route 295, and Route 42, a southern Shore route.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom