Tim And Jennifer Smale, Of Vienna, Not Alone In Their Struggle To Find Site Space WILTON -- A Vienna couple's plan to open a medical marijuana dispensary on U.S. Route 2 has fallen through, and they're now eyeing sites in the Lewiston-Auburn area for the western Maine clinic. But the vacant office building next to Dexter Supply in Wilton still may house marijuana-growing operations. Farmington contractor Luke Sirois is moving forward with plans to purchase the building and open a garden center with individual, locked rooms in which caregivers of medical marijuana patients can grow the plant. [continues 605 words]
WATERVILLE - City councilors on Tuesday will decide whether to place a six-month moratorium on considering applications for marijuana-related facilities in the city. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at The Center downtown. Councilors on July 20 voted 7-0 to place a moratorium on accepting applications and issuing permits for marijuana-related facilities, including dispensaries, cultivation operations and storage buildings. Councilors are required to take two more votes and are expected to do so Tuesday, according to City Manager Michael Roy. [continues 406 words]
I cannot believe all of the uproar surrounding the medical marijuana issue. There is a very quick and simple solution: Legalize marijuana! Marijuana growing, processing and selling are driven by one thing, and one thing only: profit. Legalizing marijuana would eliminate the profit, which, in turn, would eliminate the incentive to grow it. An added benefit would be the fact that law enforcement agencies would have more time to spend fighting real crime. I know that this letter will elicit responses from many folks opposed to my idea. [continues 93 words]
Regarding your July 21 editorial ("Let's hear the bid for medical marijuana"), not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but adult recreational use should be regulated. Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting the children. Throwing more money at the drug problem is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. [continues 95 words]
AUGUSTA -- A zone change that would allow a medical marijuana dispensary to locate at a Middle Road property faces a public hearing tonight. In June, city councilors approved medical marijuana dispensary zoning rules to limit the location of such facilities to the city's medical district. The district surrounds the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care and proposed site of a new MaineGeneral Medical Center hospital off Old Belgrade Road in north Augusta. The Planning Board is currently considering a proposal to expand the medical district to include a larger area of land along Old Belgrade Road. [continues 486 words]
PORTLAND - The City Council formally opened the door Monday to Portland's first medical marijuana dispensary. Councilors voted unanimously to add dispensaries to the list of permitted land uses in three business zones where pharmacies and other retail stores now operate. The Northeast Patients Group plans to open a state-licensed, nonprofit dispensary in Portland in December. Exactly where the dispensary will be is still not clear. The group's preferred location is a former Key Bank building at 959 Congress St., near the corner of St. John Street. That building is in one of the downtown business districts where dispensaries are now permitted. [continues 239 words]
Each of them has different challenges,' one state official says Waterville's move toward enacting a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries is the latest roadblock to arise as dispensary operators try to secure sites for their clinics. Three groups emerged from a highly competitive selection process as the state's choices to run Maine's first six dispensaries. But there are still hurdles in the way of them opening for business. One of the selected dispensary operators said if he's able to secure a site soon, mid-December would be the earliest he could start selling marijuana. [continues 584 words]
Or, how much dough can a pot plant cost if a pot plant can cost dough? It's easy to grasp the economics of the situation. It's the logic behind it that sets the mind spinning. The stories about the cost of medicinal marijuana, which soon can be sold to people with prescriptions at eight dispensaries across the state, contain more turns than a lighthouse staircase. It's far more than a little odd to read that the price of a legal substance has to be set at or above the price of its illegal counterpart in order to keep the people who buy it legally from making an under-the-table profit by illegally selling it for less than the full illegal price. [continues 326 words]
It's easy to grasp the economics of the situation. It's the logic behind it that sets the mind spinning. The stories about the cost of medicinal marijuana, which soon can be sold to people with prescriptions at eight dispensaries across the state, contain more turns than a lighthouse staircase. It's bizarre to think the cost for a legal substance -- medicinal marijuana -- must be made the same price (or more) as its illegal version -- street marijuana -- to keep those who buy it legally from profiting by selling it illegally. [continues 321 words]
Concerns about affordability arise as dispensary operators set prices high to prevent resale on the streets. Maine's new network of medical marijuana dispensaries is expected to make the drug more accessible to disabled and ill patients. Making it affordable may be another matter, however. While the dispensaries are state-licensed nonprofits, most plan to charge virtually the same prices as illegal dealers charge on the street -- from $300 to $400 an ounce. At those prices, a typical patient with cancer or multiple sclerosis might spend $500 to $600 or more each month to relieve symptoms with medication that is not covered by insurance. [continues 1092 words]
Maine's new network of medical marijuana dispensaries is expected to make the drug more accessible to disabled and ill patients. Making it affordable may be another matter, however. While the dispensaries are state-licensed nonprofits, most plan to charge virtually the same prices as illegal dealers charge on the street -- from $300 to $400 an ounce. At those prices, a typical patient with cancer or multiple sclerosis might spend $500 to $600 or more each month to relieve their symptoms with medication that is not covered by insurance. [continues 1080 words]
Legislators may need to clarify rules to keep licensed marijuana sellers from profiteering. Maine's new medical marijuana dispensaries have to incorporate as nonprofits. But that doesn't mean they are charities or that they can't make lots of money. It doesn't even mean they have to reveal the salaries paid to officers and directors. "I think the term nonprofit is often misunderstood," said Rob Levin, a Portland-based lawyer who specializes in nonprofit law. "I have no idea what the Legislature had in mind, but it wouldn't surprise me if more oversight was envisioned than what is required under (Maine law)." [continues 625 words]
He wants the new medical marijuana dispensary law yanked, to legalize pot for the 19-plus crowd in Maine and to give voters a chance to do both on the November 2011 ballot. Don Christen said the signature campaign for his two referendum questions is still getting off the ground, relying on 60 volunteers. On Friday, he couldn't estimate how many they had collected. He'll need 55,000-plus signatures on each petition, by January. One question, "An Act Regarding Possession and Cultivation of Marijuana for Medical Purposes," would replace the existing dispensary law, while the second, "An Act to Repeal the Prohibition of Cannabis, Hemp and Marijuana," would essentially legalize marijuana. [continues 182 words]
At Issue Is Whether A School Near The Proposed Congress Street Location Is Licensed By The State. PORTLAND - The group that plans to open Portland's first medical marijuana dispensary expects to learn Monday whether it must find another site. Northeast Patients Group chose 959 Congress St. as its preferred home for a state-licensed dispensary, which is scheduled to open in December. But the property may be too close to the Deliverance Center, a church that takes in drug addicts and alcoholics and houses a small private school called the Christian Academy of Portland. [continues 351 words]
They have names such as AK-47, Chocolope, Sour Queen and Bubblegum - strains of medical marijuana coming to the state's six new dispensaries. In applications to the Department of Health and Human Services, Northeast Patients Group, which will run four dispensaries, indicated that patients would be able to choose from more than 20 strains. Remedy Compassion Center in Wilton, with one dispensary, will offer 17 strains; and Safe Alternatives of Fort Kent, with one dispensary, 12 strains. Each is pegged to a different condition. It will take time for dispensaries to grow and offer full crops. [continues 63 words]
In the week since the state named three nonprofits to run six first-of-their-kind medical marijuana dispensaries in Maine, Kathy Bubar has heard the myths and the gripes, and she has stressed that, no, the state doesn't intend to reconsider last Friday's announcement. "(It's been) lots of rumor-dispelling and (questions such as) why did we pick the people we picked and why didn't we pick other people and are we going to change our minds," said Bubar, director of interagency coordination at the Department of Health and Human Services. [continues 907 words]
Police chief says marijuana dispensary would not improve quality of life in South End neighborhood WATERVILLE -- Next-door neighbors of a former KFC marched on Water Street Thursday, protesting a proposal to open a medical marijuana dispensary there. Beverly and Andrew Busque walked in front of the former fast-food restaurant for about three hours with signs that said "no marijuana here." The demonstration is a sight, they say, Waterville residents will have to get used to. While some people driving by honked their horns and gave them the thumbs-up, Beverly Busque said, others let the couple know they didn't agree with their message. [continues 385 words]
Northeast Patients Group Says It Will Review the Suitability of Its Property at 959 Congress St. PORTLAND - A group that plans to operate a medical marijuana dispensary on Congress Street may have to use another site. Northeast Patients Group has identified a brick and granite building at Congress and St. John streets as its preferred site for Portland's first medical marijuana dispensary, which it plans to open in December. But that property appears to be within 500 feet of the Deliverance Center, a church that takes in drug addicts and alcoholics and happens to house a small and little-known private school, the Christian Academy of Portland. [continues 549 words]
One day more than a decade ago, shortly after he'd turned heads throughout Maine's law enforcement community by publicly coming out in favor of legalized medical marijuana, one of Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion's senior officers knocked on his office door. "Tell me you're not going to keep pursuing this," the officer said pleadingly. "It's where we've got to go," Dion replied with a smile. He wasn't kidding. Some might call him window dressing for Northeast Patients Group, the nonprofit company that last week received four of six state permits to open medical marijuana dispensaries throughout Maine. [continues 1072 words]
Inside Maine
