Pubdate: Sun, 25 Oct 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Kay Lazar

STEADY GROWTH SEEN IN MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE

Norton Arbelaez has met some unusual people in his six years working 
in the medical marijuana industry, but one patient who gingerly 
walked into New England Treatment Access in Northampton, the latest 
marijuana dispensary to open in Massachusetts, took him by surprise.

The patient was seeking relief from gnawing foot pain, a pain the man 
said had plagued him for 70 years.

"I was really blown away when this older gentleman walked in and he 
described to me his experience in the Battle of the Bulge in World 
War II," said Arbelaez, New England Treatment's consultant for 
standards and practices. "His feet froze during that battle [in the 
winter of 1944], and he said he found a lot of relief from medical 
cannabis products."

While the medical benefit of marijuana continues to be hotly debated 
nationwide, one picture coming into sharper focus in Massachusetts is 
the burgeoning number of patients seeking cannabis products.

In its first three weeks of business, New England Treatment, which 
opened Sept. 28, provided marijuana to 1,428 patients, according to Arbelaez.

For dispensaries, it's never as easy as sticking a few seeds in the 
ground and watching the plants, and profits, grow.

By comparison, Alternative Therapies Group in Salem, which in June 
became the first dispensary to open in the state, said it served 
about the same amount, 1,500 - but that was during its first two 
months of operation. Alternative Therapies has been serving patients 
by appointment only.

In Northampton, as many as 40 new patients walk through the door 
every day, according to New England Treatment's latest count. And the 
typical client is far from a twenty-something.

The average New England Treatment patient is 47 years old, and about 
two-thirds are men. About one-quarter are over age 60, the company said.

That's older than the typical medical marijuana customer in Colorado, 
where Arbelaez founded RiverRock in 2009, one of Colorado's first 
regulated medical marijuana facilities. The latest data from the 
Colorado health department show that while two-thirds of the state's 
marijuana patients are male, the average age is about 43, and just 16 
percent are over age 60.

Massachusetts regulators are still refining the way they report 
medical marijuana data. As of Oct. 1, the state health department 
counted 19,783 certified marijuana patients, a number that grew by 
more than 2,000 during September.

State rules require a physician to certify that a patient suffers 
from a medical condition, such as seizures, chronic pain, or nausea 
from cancer treatments, that might be eased by using marijuana. That 
information must be submitted to the state health department for the 
patient to be considered certified.

Three dispensaries have been approved to sell products in 
Massachusetts, including New England Treatment, which is the first to 
open in Western Massachusetts; Alternative Therapies; and In Good 
Health in Brockton, which opened Sept. 4.

A fourth company, Patriot Care, received the state's blessing Tuesday 
to start planting marijuana. Company spokesman Dennis Kunian said 
Patriot Care executives hope to open all three of their dispensaries, 
in Lowell, Greenfield, and downtown Boston on Milk Street, in February.

New England Treatment intends to open its other dispensary, at Route 
9 and Washington Street in Brookline, before the end of this year, 
according to company spokeswoman Dot Joyce.

Another company, Central Ave Compassionate Care in Ayer, also 
received permission to start planting back in May, but has yet to 
open. The company did not return a phone call from the Globe seeking an update.

A true measure of demand in Massachusetts may not come until state 
regulators lift a cap on the amount of marijuana that can be sold to 
each patient at any one time. Regulators are concerned that current 
screening tests may not adequately measure pesticides and metals in 
the products.

Laboratories in Massachusetts are still fine-tuning quality testing 
of marijuana products. The tests are required by the state health 
department under rules considered to be among the most stringent in 
the country.

In the meantime, dispensaries are allowed to dispense a maximum of 
4.23 ounces of marijuana to patients every two months. When testing 
problems are worked out, patients will be allowed to buy up to 10 
ounces of marijuana every two months, under state rules.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom