Pubdate: Sun, 04 May 2014
Source: Cape Cod Times (MA)
Copyright: 2014 Cape Cod Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/sbOHSik6
Website: http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/72
Author: K.C. Myers

CAPE ADDICTION SPECIALISTS TAKE HEAT FOR ROLES IN MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Three prominent staff members of the Cape's largest substance abuse 
treatment organization have signed on to work for different medical 
marijuana clinics.

Ray Tamasi, president and CEO of Gosnold on Cape Cod, has accepted 
the job as addiction prevention director for Medical Marijuana of 
Massachusetts, which received provisional licenses to open three 
dispensaries - one in Mashpee, Taunton and Plymouth.

Tamasi said he plans to donate his projected salary of $100,000 to 
his treatment organization's prevention program.

Shelley Stormo, Gosnold's director of family services, will be the 
CEO and president of Compassionate Care Clinics, which has a 
provisional license to open in Fairhaven. Her projected salary is 
$150,000, she said.

Stormo's father, David Aubrey, a North Falmouth resident, scientist 
and entrepreneur, will work as the financial officer of the clinic.

And Holly Carroll, Gosnold's intervention coordinator and family 
specialist, will serve as vice president of Compassionate Care with a 
projected salary of $100,000, Stormo said. Carroll is also a member 
of the Cape's nonprofit Freedom from Addiction Network.

Tamasi said having treatment specialists involved on the ground floor 
of the medical marijuana business is the best way to control, shape 
and monitor how the business develops in the state.

However, the role of addiction specialists in the medical marijuana 
business has drawn passionate criticism from within the treatment 
community, since marijuana is itself an abused substance.

"I like Ray. He is giant in his field. But it's a betrayal of 
ideals," said retired Barnstable Judge Joseph Reardon, president of 
the Cape Cod Justice for Youth Collaborative, of which FAN is an offshoot.

Reardon said he didn't know Carroll was involved in the Fairhaven 
marijuana dispensary.

"If you oppose the use of substances, how can you be involved in a 
business that sells a substance?" Reardon asked. "I hope they're not 
motivated by profit."

"I'm really disappointed on several levels," said Tim Lineaweaver, a 
Falmouth-based therapist who treats patients with addiction. He is 
also in long-term substance abuse recovery.

"Every leader we have in this field needs to be focused on increasing 
our treatment capacity, not on creating a whole other vein to make 
treatment necessary," Lineaweaver said.

'I BELIEVE THIS MEDICINE IS SAFER'

Tamasi had spoken publicly against the ballot initiative that 
legalized marijuana for medical use. And, Tamasi said, he remains 
critical of the legislation because of the loopholes that could allow 
doctors to write marijuana certificates for profit.

Stormo, who has a master's degree in clinical psychology and has 
worked for Gosnold for more than a decade, has a different view. She 
said she has confidence in the state Department of Public Health 
regulators' decisions. She said she sees the clear medical benefits 
of marijuana to treat pain, nausea and other disorders.

Furthermore, she believes marijuana could be an alternative to opiate 
painkillers, which have caused a national epidemic of prescription 
drug and heroin abuse.

"Both Holly and I spent our careers seeing how opiates taken for pain 
have lead to terrible addictions," Stormo said. "We believe we can do better.

"I have a passion for helping the sick and suffering, and I believe 
this medicine is safer," she added.

Stormo sees no conflict between her work at Gosnold and her new role 
as president of a dispensary for medical marijuana. "We're focused on 
safety and patient care," she said.

Her view isn't shared by Reardon, who started Barnstable County's 
first drug court in 2002.

"I think it's nonsense and sophistry of the worst kind to say it's 
the only or the best drug for nausea or pain," Reardon said.

"I know it looks like opportunism," said Tamasi, who has been with 
Gosnold since it opened in 1972, and has served as its president and 
CEO since 1992.

"I'm in my twilight years," he continued. "And I don't want my legacy 
to be known as a sell-out for medical marijuana.

He hopes to use the medical marijuana business, which exists whether 
he likes it or not, to Gosnold's advantage.

Any salary he earns will be donated to Gosnold's prevention program, 
which has launched at several Cape schools and doctors' offices in 
the past year or so, he said.

The salary cannot directly go from the dispensary to Gosnold because 
the treatment facility accepts federal grants and marijuana is still 
a Schedule I drug and illegal in the eyes of the federal government. 
He doesn't want Gosnold to lose the federal funding because of any 
association with medical marijuana.

"So I'm a pass-through for the money," he said, referring to his salary.

DELAHUNT: MONEY 'NOT GUARANTEED'

Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts will be run by former U.S. Rep. 
William Delahunt.

Delahunt said he approached Tamasi because he wants addiction 
prevention to be a part of Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts' mission.

Tamasi's duties will include writing brochures and public speaking 
around addiction awareness, Delahunt said.

Gosnold could earn income from the dispensary in other ways besides 
Tamasi's salary, Tamasi said.

Massachusetts dispensaries, which have become gold mines in other 
states, are nonprofits. Part of the legislation states that 
nonprofits must donate income, after expenses and salaries have been 
paid, to other nonprofits, Tamasi said.

"So I figure if I'm working with them, it could benefit Gosnold 
somehow," Tamasi said.

Former Barnstable County Commissioner Mary LeClair, who served on 
Gosnold's board of directors for 27 years until she stepped down in 
December, said her motivation is similar. Delahunt hired her as his 
dispensaries' director of community outreach.

Delahunt said people may think profit drives the interest in medical 
marijuana dispensaries but the money is not at all guaranteed.

Delahunt said he doesn't plan to take a salary for two years. He's 
listed on the state application as earning $250,000 annually.

"Listen, Ray Tamasi isn't going to be seeing a dime for a long time," 
Delahunt said.

The salaries were just projections put down on the state application, 
Tamasi said.

"It would be nice to get a salary, and to own a home again," LeClair 
said, who is slated to earn $100,000. "Right now I'm renting."

But, she added, she isn't counting on it.

Delahunt said the upfront capital and operating costs are 
significant, and taxes will take $70 out of every $100 from the 
dispensary's bottom line.

A study by the ArcView Group, a marijuana-industry group, stated that 
the national projection for marijuana industry revenue in 2014 is 
$2.57 billion, derived primarily from medical marijuana, Taylor West, 
deputy director with the National Cannabis Industry Association, told 
the Cape Cod Times.

In Massachusetts the projection is $56 million for 2014, West said.

Taunton resident Lori Gonsalves, whose son, Cory Palazzi, received 
treatment at Gosnold last year, said her reaction is mixed.

"I love Gosnold and wish them nothing but the best," she said. "But 
even if Ray has the best intentions and I believe he does, people are 
going to think what they want to think. And so if I were Ray, I would 
have just stayed away from this."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom