BY R.J. DELUKE
New York state is expected to take the next
big step in its plan to provide medical marijuana
to patients with ailments including cancer, HIV/
AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), Parkinson’s
disease and multiple sclerosis.
Among the 43 applications being considered
is a location in the Washington County town
of Jackson–north of Cambridge and east of
Greenwich– on Plains Road.
Another proposal, a group that would cultivate
its crop in Plattsburgh, wants to locate
one of its dispensaries in Halfmoon in Saratoga
County.
In July 2014, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the
state Legislature enacted the Compassionate
Care Act. It lays out the rules for the program
and how it would be regulated and dispensed.
“We’ve put in an application for a cultivation
site in the town of Jackson, in Washington County,”
said Ted Berndt who bought the Washington
County Agri-Business Park in a tax auction.
There are “various value-added agricultural
activities” in the park currently, he said.
The marijuana cultivation space would be a
12-acre secured site, he said.
“We have a tremendous amount of public
support, local county and state,” he noted.
In March, the Washington County Board of
Supervisors passed a resolution of support and
Berndt also received a letter of support from the
Washington County Local Development Corp.
Berndt owns the site in a partnership with
other farmers in the area.
He said if the license is successful, it will
be leased as Compassionate Relief Centers of
New York, which will conduct the business. He
also has leases on four other sites, two upstate
and two downstate, that would become the dispensaries.
Berndt anticipates 25-30 jobs being created
at the site, “meaningful agricultural jobs in
Washington County” and similar numbers at
the dispensaries. He did not name where those
would be.
For any county that contains one of the
licensed sites, for every $10 million in revenue,
the host county would get $160,000, Berndt said.
There is also a 7 percent state excise tax on all
the proceeds from sales. Washington County
would get 22.5 percent of that 7 percent. Host
counties where the dispensaries are located
would get a percentage of that as well.
Douglas Butdorf of North Country Roots
in Plattsburgh has the application to grow
marijuana in Platttsburgh and place one of
his dispensaries in Halfmoon. He said he has
a lease on a building there, and is approaching
Halfmoon officials about what he needs to get
the ball rolling–if he’s successful in getting a
state license.
Berndt said the state Department of Health
told him the time line for finding out who gets a
license is early July, but with over 40 applicants,
it might take longer, he thinks.
“We are in a fully funded partnership with
the Greater New York Hospital Association” and
its for-profit arm, said Berndt.
“We see it as a patient health care delivery
issue, so partnering with a hospital is the best
way to do it,” he said. “We think we’ve got a very
good application … We’ll see how it shakes out.”
Greater New York Hospital Association is
a trade association comprising nearly 250
hospitals and continuing care facilities, both
voluntary and public throughout the state, as
well as New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. It helps hospitals deliver patient care
in the most cost-effective way.
According to its website, it operates the largest
business enterprise of any trade association
in the U.S. through its for-profit arm, GNYHA
Ventures Inc. These efforts generate billions in
commerce while also delivering value for its
members. Working with the Association, GNYHA
Ventures, Inc. navigates the world of business
advocacy to help improve hospital operations
and to provide industry-leading transparency
and cost reduction.
The companies who are awarded licenses will
be permitted to open up to four dispensaries.
Butdorf noted the excise tax “is not receiptdriven.
Patients will not see the tax on their
receipt. It is a 7 percent tax taken off the top
on total sales.”
If things go as Butdorf hopes, Saratoga
County would get an occasional check from New
York state via the excise tax setup.
If the dispensary is running, he will employ
8-15 people, “depending upon how fast patients
come on board with the New York state medical
marijuana program,” he said.
If license is approved in July, his group would
take three to four months to retrofit the building
“and go from there.”
The 43 applicants were required to pay two
fees. One is a $200,000 fee. All unsuccessful
applicants will receive a refund for that fee.
The other $10,000 fee is non-refundable. That
means the state will end up collecting $1.43
million from the application process.
Cuomo said in 2014 that the program is a
step forward “to provide much-needed relief
to New Yorkers living with extraordinary pain,
while balancing the need to safeguard general
public health and safety.”
He said the proposed regulations “are designed
with that in mind, so that we can alleviate
suffering for patients with serious conditions
while also ensuring that medical marijuana is
dispensed and administered responsibly.”
Entities that wanted to manufacture and
distribute medical marijuana applied to the
Department of Health.
Registered organization licenses will last
for two-years, state officials said. Registered
organizations would be required to maintain
separate facilities for manufacturing and dispensing
medical marijuana and would have to
meet strict security guidelines.
The DOH commissioner would approve the
forms and delivery systems through which
medical marijuana could be offered, excluding
smoking, which will be prohibited. Each
registered organization would initially be permitted
to produce up to five types of medical
marijuana products. Independent laboratory
testing would verify cannabinoid content to
ensure consistency.
“Our goal is to ensure that New Yorkers have
access to the treatment they need through
a controlled, regulated process,” said acting
Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. “As an added
level of security, physicians must review their
patients’ history of controlled substances in the
I-STOP database before a certification can be
issued and before medical marijuana can be
dispensed.”
Registered organizations will be able to
dispense up to a 30-day supply of medical marijuana
to certified patients with a valid registry
identification card. Patients may only possess
up to a 30-day supply of medical marijuana.
The medical marijuana will be dispensed in
a sealed and properly labeled package, with a
safety insert included. Patients must keep the
medical marijuana in the original packaging in
which it was dispensed.
The program will make medical marijuana
accessible to patients with conditions including
cancer, HIV/AIDS, ALS, Parkinson’s disease,
multiple sclerosis, damage to the nervous tissue
of the spinal cord with objective neurological
indication of intractable spasticity, epilepsy,
inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathies and
Huntington’s disease. The law includes these
conditions when there is a clinical association
with or complication of the condition resulting
in cachexia or wasting syndrome, severe or
chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures; or severe
or persistent muscle spasms.