The New Jersey Department of Health today issued a permit to Compassionate Sciences, Inc. in Bellmawr Boro, Camden County to begin growing medicinal marijuana.
The permit was issued after a comprehensive review including several site inspections, background checks of its corporate officers and a review of its security operations and cultivation facility. This is the fifth Alternative Treatment Center (ATC) given a permit to cultivate medicinal marijuana by the Department.
Once a permit to grow has been issued, Compassionate Sciences, Inc. estimates it will take approximately three months to cultivate and prepare the medicinal marijuana for distribution. Once the product has been tested by the state laboratory and the dispensary is operational and inspected by the Medicinal Marijuana Program, a second permit will be issued to operate and dispense as an ATC. Once Compassionate Sciences, Inc. is permitted as an ATC, patients will be notified by email of the opening date and the procedure for registering with the ATC. Compassionate Sciences has indicated it expects to open in the fall of 2015.
The Medicinal Marijuana Program has three Alternative Treatment Centers open and dispensing: Greenleaf Compassion Center of Montclair, Compassionate Care Foundation of Egg Harbor and Garden State Dispensary of Woodbridge. A fourth ATC, Breakwater ATC in Cranbury, was granted a permit to grow in November.
Patients can choose any ATC regardless of where they live. Changing ATCs does not require a new identification card. There is no cost to change ATC registration, but patients can only register with one ATC at a time. Approximately 5,300 patients are registered with the Medicinal Marijuana Program. The 392 physicians enrolled in the program are listed by county and medical specialty.
A complete list of physicians participating in the program can be found at: http://www.state.nj.us/health/medicalmarijuana/find_phy_pat.shtml.
Additional information about the program, including contact information for the ATCs, is available at: http://www.state.nj.us/health/medicalmarijuana/index.shtml. The Medicinal Marijuana Program customer service number is 609-292-0424.
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