PORTLAND - The Portland Planning Board voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend that medical marijuana dispensaries be allowed in business zones where pharmacies and other retail stores are now located. The designation would allow Northeast Patients Group to open a dispensary in a former Key Bank building at 959 Congress St., near the corner of St. John Street. The Planning Board recommendation covers B-2, B-3 and B-7 zones. City planners say the city will eventually adopt performance standards and possibly a comprehensive ordinance regulating dispensaries. [continues 274 words]
With no criticism of applicants intended, we take it as evidence of rigorous review that no companies were chosen to operate medical marijuana dispensaries in two of the state's eight districts - York County and Washington/Hancock County. A panel of the state's Department of Health and Human Services reviewed 27 applications. Three companies were licensed to operate dispensaries in six districts, with Northeast Patients Group selected for four of them. A sound selection process will serve the interests of the state and patients using the dispensaries. Yet since marijuana is expected to bring relief to many who are suffering, we hope the second round of applications, due to close on Aug. 20, will bring suitable bids for York County and the Downeast area. [continues 320 words]
BRUNSWICK - A Maine Department of Health and Human Services panel announced today it has chosen applicants to operate medical marijuana dispensaries in six of the state's eight public health districts, according to a department announcement. The selections were made by a four-person department panel after scoring the applications using several criteria. Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services officials say it will still likely be as long as four months before any of the chosen dispensaries are open for business. [continues 448 words]
In the 1990s, well-meaning physicians changed the way they prescribed narcotics after medical researchers determined that pain was being undertreated in the United States. As a result, large quantities of powerful drugs like OxyContin were diverted into the black market. Drug makers, pharmacists and doctors got smarter about how they distributed the drugs, but not before people abused them and became addicted, in many cases leaving their lives ruined or their families grieving. Maine will face a similar danger with the opening of medical marijuana dispensaries next year, with four of the first six run by Northeast Patients Group, a California-based firm. [continues 238 words]
AUGUSTA -- A nonprofit with California roots was selected Friday to operate four of Maine's six new medical marijuana dispensaries. Cathy Cobb of Maine's Department of Health and Human Services, who served on the four-member selection committee, said security and patient education plans, along with a clear nonprofit mission, were the keys for the winning applications. Northeast Patients Group, which features outgoing Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion as a board member, received the best score in four out of the five counties for which it sought licenses. [continues 766 words]
Northeast Patients Group has to deal with zoning restrictions and other issues as it picks a site. AUGUSTA - The group awarded four of the six medical marijuana dispensary licenses statewide hasn't yet decided whether to locate its central Maine facility in Augusta or Waterville -- a decision complicated by zoning, a planned new hospital and a proposed highway ramp. Rebecca DeKeuster, executive director of Northeast Patients Group, said she'll work closely with city leaders and the state Department of Health and Human Services to choose a location. [continues 388 words]
Augusta also in the running for site WATERVILLE -- A former KFC on Water Street could be the site of one of the state's first eight medical marijuana dispensaries. The Department of Health and Human Services identified Friday the three groups that would run six of those dispensaries. Northeast Patients Group, an offshoot of a California dispensary operator, will run four of them, including one in central Maine. The group is proposing to open the clinic either on Middle Street in Augusta or on Water Street in Waterville. [continues 1025 words]
VIENNA - Timothy Smale, president of Remedy Compassion Center, one of three companies chosen to dispense medical marijuana in Maine, knows how desperate patients are to get access to prescription cannabis. Smale suffers from debilitating migraines and uses marijuana to stem nausea and to help him sleep. His wife, and vice president of Remedy, serves as his caregiver, administering doses of marijuana to him when he is too sick to do it himself. The couple, who have lived in Vienna since 2004, intend to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Wilton, serving residents of Franklin, Oxford and Androscoggin counties. [continues 616 words]
BANGOR, Maine -- Marijuana dispensaries are a hot topic, but Maine doctors remain lukewarm about the key role they play in the state's emerging medical marijuana program. Many physicians are skeptical about the benefits of treating medical conditions with marijuana, and others are unclear about the implications of recommending a drug that remains illegal for nonmedical use. Physician skepticism and ambivalence may prolong patients' inability to legally obtain a drug they say brings them significant relief. Dr. John Woytowicz of Augusta says marijuana's effectiveness in relieving pain, nausea and muscle spasms is well-established. For the past decade, Woytowicz has provided the documentation his patients have needed to legally possess small amounts of marijuana under Maine's previous law. But that law didn't help patients obtain marijuana, leaving them either to grow their own or purchase it from illicit dealers. [continues 423 words]
AUGUSTA - A Wilton man has been awarded a license to run a medical marijuana dispensary in what the state calls District 3 - Oxford, Franklin and Androscoggin counties. The Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services made the announcement Friday morning. Statewide, three nonprofits were picked to run dispensaries in six districts. Twenty-seven applications were reviewed and scored, according to a press release. Timothy Smale, who will run the Remedy Compassion Center from a facility at 932 U.S. Route 2 East in Wilton, scored the highest of any of the applicants. [continues 111 words]
Northeast Patients Group Earns the Chance to Distribute the Drug in Cumberland County and Three Other Regions. PORTLAND - Cumberland County's first medical marijuana dispensary is expected to open this fall on Congress Street in Portland. York County may have to wait a little longer. Maine awarded six operating licenses Friday for nonprofit dispensaries around the state, and one of the licensees plans to lease part of the former Key Bank building at 959 Congress, near the corner of St. John Street. [continues 1253 words]
Department of Health and Human Services Makes Its Choices Based on Scoring System AUGUSTA -- A nonprofit with California roots was selected Friday to operate four of Maine's six new medical marijuana dispensaries. Cathy Cobb of Maine's Department of Health and Human Services, who served on the four-member selection committee, said security and patient education plans, along with a clear nonprofit mission, were the keys for the winning applications. Northeast Patients Group, which features outgoing Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion as a board member, received the best score in four out of the five counties for which it sought licenses. [continues 766 words]
Brunswick location on list of proposed Cumberland County sites up for review BATH - The city of Bath has joined the growing number of Maine communities actively considering the potential impacts of a medical marijuana dispensary. The City Council on Wednesday agreed to direct the Planning Board to hold a public hearing on medical marijuana dispensaries and where in the city one might be appropriate. The council did not take any steps toward placing a moratorium on dispensaries in the city, a step taken by nearby Topsham and some other Maine towns. [continues 290 words]
The state will announce Friday which nonprofit operators will get the eight slots as part of Maine's medical marijuana law. They would charge anywhere from $200 to $400 for each ounce of Lemon Diesel, Green Queen or other varieties of marijuana. Many would provide massage, acupuncture and yoga as extra services. One would organize knitting and quilting groups. Another would hire a pastry chef to turn marijuana into gourmet organic "edibles." And, while the Maine market is untested, most expect to sell at least $1 million worth of the drug in the first full year of operation, starting July 1, 2011. [continues 1191 words]
He will join the board of a firm hoping to run five dispensaries. Outgoing Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion has agreed to join the board of directors of a group that has applied to operate five medical marijuana dispensaries in Maine. Dion, who is leaving office Dec. 31, said Wednesday he was approached by Northeast Patients Group last month during a medical marijuana conference at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. He agreed to serve as an unpaid member of Northeast's board. [continues 398 words]
The public can't see the dispensary applications until all confidential data has been edited out. State officials spent this week poring over 29 applications to operate medical marijuana dispensaries, in hopes of awarding Maine's first eight licenses a week from today. But the applications won't be opened for public inspection until the middle of next week, officials said Thursday. The applications contain confidential information that must be edited out, such as Social Security numbers of applicants and the names of some patients who hope to buy marijuana to treat the symptoms of cancer, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses, said John Martins, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services. [continues 350 words]
WILTON - The Planning Board on Thursday unanimously approved a second permit to use the Dexter building on Routes 2 and 4 as a medical marijuana dispensary. Timothy and Jennifer Smale of Vienna applied for the permit in order to open Remedy Compassion Center. Last month, Lucas Sirois and Chad Crandall received a permit for the building for their dispensary business named Ahead Care. Whether either will use the building for that purpose will be determined by the state and announced on July 9. Only one facility will be licensed within eight zones across the state. [continues 362 words]
PARIS - The Board of Selectmen on Monday unanimously voted to adopt a moratorium to go to a special town meeting. The ordinance to establish a moratorium is based on one proposed to the town of Eliot and ultimately rejected there June 12. It states that the town does not have any ordinances to regulate dispensaries, and that the existing ordinances are inadequate to address the issue. It asks for six months to study the issue, and during that time the town may not take action on any applications for dispensaries or cultivating facilities or allow such facilities to operate in the town. [continues 443 words]
How much profit can a nonprofit make without exceeding what's suitable for its legal status? That, interestingly enough, has become one of the central questions being raised about who will get to operate the state's medical marijuana distribution centers. Promoted to let seriously ill patients acquire a substance that could calm them and offer substantial pain relief, voters in a 2009 referendum approved the use of palliative pot. The state chose to implement the law by establishing distribution centers in each of Maine's eight public health districts. [continues 182 words]
Inside Maine
