A Gardiner medical marijuana caregiver says dozens of people took part in a cleanup Saturday in which he and other growers provided a gram of marijuana for every bag of trash collected on city streets by participants. Dennis Meehan, who runs Summit Medical Marijuana with other members of his family in downtown Gardiner, said "several dozen" participants filled more than 100 trash bags - every bag they had on hand. While he said he isn't sure how much marijuana he gave away, the trash bin was filled beyond the top, and overflowing. [continues 766 words]
PORTLAND - About 200 people showed up Deering Oaks Park Saturday for the Atlantic CannaFEST. A reggae band from the Boston area, High Hopes, were performing at the bandstand. People were lined at the sole food vendor in the park. People were also lined up in front of the booth for High Tech Grower Supply store, picking up free samples of equipment used to grow marijuana hydroponically. Several politcal candidates are on hand and speakers include Dustin Sulak, a doctor who has offices in Hallowell and Falmouth. Sulak certifies patients and assists them in using marijuana as a medication. The nearby childen's park at Deering Oaks was filled with children and their parents, many of them unaware of the fesitval. The festival promotes medical marijuana and protests the high price of state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries. [end]
Adolescent pot use can literally be a dumb idea. A formal study has shown that heavy use can produce permanent loss of critical IQ points. In a report released online this week by the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of U.S. and British researchers has found that heavy use of marijuana by teenagers and young adults can reduce their IQ scores by as much as 8 points in later life. No such results were found in people who smoked the same amount of pot but started using the drug later in life, the report said. People who started young also were found to have weaker memory and attention-focusing skills. [continues 351 words]
It's been nearly two years since voters approved the sale and use of medical marijuana for qualifying patients in Maine. Since that time, licenses to operate dispensaries have been awarded to eight health districts across the state, including Hallowell. As the city's mayor, I have been working with state and local law enforcement, along with Becky DeKeuster, executive director of the Wellness Connection of Maine, the non-profit that will operate the Hallowell dispensary, to ensure that all regulations have been met and that our community will be protected. [continues 161 words]
State's Newest Marijuana Clinic Recently Began Operating in Hallowell HALLOWELL -- The state's newest medical marijuana dispensary opened Tuesday to the public for the first and last time. Wellness Connection of Maine hosted an open house at the dispensary, which recently began seeing patients by appointment. Now, following Tuesday's public unveiling, only patients and their caregivers will be able to access the office at 115 Water St. Since its first full week of operation last week, the dispensary has served about 30 patients, said Faith Benedetti, who works in patient services. [continues 746 words]
AUGUSTA -- As Maine's largest medical marijuana nonprofit organization plans to open its dispensaries, the man originally tapped to run its growing operation says the organization does not have enough space to grow the product its patients need. Meanwhile, leading state patient advocates say those who have signed up to receive medical marijuana from a Wellness Connection of Maine dispensary in Thomaston have run up against difficulty setting up appointments and stringent product limits that are well below the amounts allowed by state law. [continues 1847 words]
My initial response to the Dec. 28 editorial, "Pot dispensary a pharmacy, not a social lounge," was to slap my forehead and gasp, "I could have had a (popular vegetable-based beverage)." Actually, that's the polite version. The lounge atmosphere of the California marijuana scam was clearly known long before Maine advocates decided to emulate it. Cannabinoids do have some medical applications, and several products have been available for quite some time through the existing pharmaceutical distribution system. Research to develop others is ongoing. This is the manner in which numerous other nature-based medicines originated, but it is the only one I know of where a psychoactive natural substance is used in its raw form. [continues 186 words]
Dispensary Will See Patients Full Time Starting Next Month HALLOWELL -- A city medical marijuana dispensary started seeing patients by appointment before Christmas and plans to open full time next month. Wellness Connection of Maine's 2,400-square-foot dispensary, one floor above the Liberal Cup on Water Street, is scheduled to open by January's end, according to the firm's executive director, Becky DeKeuster. Under state law, the dispensary will be the only one allowed in Kennebec County. Earlier this year, DeKeuster had hoped the dispensary would be open by the fall. Renovations have held up the Hallowell dispensary's opening, according to Jane Lane, senior vice president with Philip W. Johnston Associates, a Boston-based public affairs firm working with Wellness Connection. [continues 507 words]
PORTLAND -- A medical marijuana dispensary that's scheduled to open in Portland next month is designed as a California-style wellness center. Its operator is promoting a free coffee and tea bar, acupuncture clinics, support groups, counseling and a "welcoming vapor lounge." The new website of Wellness Connection of Maine says, "Patients are always welcome to relax and socialize near our fireplace, or enjoy a free cup of tea with a friend in our cafe space." The manager of Maine's medical marijuana program says a dispensary with such amenities would violate state regulations aimed at ensuring that dispensaries are places to get medicine for serious illnesses, not places to socialize. [continues 528 words]
On two occasions, Maine voters have authorized medical marijuana for people with serious illnesses. This was not a vote to legalize recreational marijuana use, but an attempt to treat the herb as much like a medicine as possible. Operators of the newest dispensary in Portland should keep that in mind and not take advantage of Mainers' compassion. Unfortunately, that's not what they are advertising. The website of Wellness Connection of Maine advertises a place for patients to relax near a fireplace and drink tea, while eating food laced with marijuana. It's a setting that sounds more like a cocktail lounge than a dispensary and it is not what voters were promised. [continues 260 words]
AUGUSTA - Maine's Department of Health and Human Services approved financing for the state's largest medical marijuana nonprofit this week, paving the way for the opening of four dispensaries for which it holds exclusive state licenses. A letter dated Wednesday from Catherine Cobb, the director of DHHS' Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services, to Northeast Patients Group Executive Director Becky DeKeuster, was provided to the Kennebec Journal by Stephen Langsdorf, an Augusta-based attorney representing Northeast in a lawsuit against its former financial backer. [continues 170 words]
AUGUSTA -- An attorney for Maine's largest medical marijuana nonprofit group says it has secured $1.6 million in financing in a deal that will be formally delivered to the state today. If approved, the deal will enable Northeast Patients Group to open its first dispensary within a month, according to Daniel Walker, a Portland lawyer who represents the struggling dispensary group. Walker filed documents Aug. 4 with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services naming The Farmacy Institute for Wellness and retired NBA basketball player Cuttino Mobley as partners in The Wellness and Pain Management Connection LLC. [continues 629 words]
AUGUSTA -- Marijuana is known for making some people feel good and making others angry, particularly when it comes to debates about whether or not to make the plant available to the ill and the injured. But the plant becomes much less exciting when the topic turns to how it grows. "I think it's important, when you grow something, to know something about it," said Ray Logan, instructor for the fourth Marijuana State University medical marijuana grow class, held Saturday at the Senator Inn. [continues 594 words]
AUGUSTA - Maine's largest medical marijuana dispensary unexpectedly disclosed that the president of a prominent California dispensary chain is the point person for a new financing deal it says will allow them to open its first Maine dispensary "within weeks." The Wellness and Pain Management Connection LLC was named as the financier of an eight-year, $1.6 million loan, which, according to documents provided to the Kennebec Journal by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, will be paid back at 8.5 percent interest per year. [continues 193 words]
Winthrop Woman Second to Step Down From Panel Recently AUGUSTA -- Another board member has quit the group that holds the right to operate half Maine's medical marijuana dispensaries. In a July 20 email to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Northeast Patients Group Executive Director Becky DeKeuster wrote that Faith Benedetti, of Winthrop, had stepped down from the board of directors that week. Benedetti did not return messages left Tuesday on her cell phone and Facebook page. DeKeuster didn't return a message left on her phone. [continues 597 words]
AUGUSTA -- Ryan Begin was checking a report of an improvised explosive device in Iskandariya, Iraq., on Aug. 1, 2004. Then the U.S. Marine Corps corporal saw one. It detonated, blowing apart his right arm. More than 30 surgeries later, Begin said he has regained some use of his arm. But the psychological damage has taken a harsher toll, including drug addiction and violence. Begin told doctors in federal health centers high-grade medical marijuana was his only hope for tamping down the innumerable nightmares, flashbacks and fears that followed him from the battlefield. [continues 1576 words]
AUGUSTA -- A financing agreement has been finalized between the holder of half of Maine's medical marijuana dispensary licenses and a former professional basketball player. The $2 million agreement between Northeast Patients Group and an organization led by former NBA player Cuttino Mobley comes as Northeast faces a lawsuit from its former California-based backer. The litigation and the deal with Mobley that sparked it have big implications for Maine's fledgling medical marijuana industry: Northeast holds exclusive state licenses to operate dispensaries in Maine's most populous markets: Portland, Kennebec County and the Bangor area, as well as Thomaston. [continues 1229 words]
More news and wrangling about marijuana and growers, who is, who isn't. Still, it's the American profit motive at work. Everyone wants to grow marijuana for money, and lots of both. Who wouldn't want to get rich? The news is that someone else wants a piece of the pie and didn't get selected. The business models and profit motives could be more of a problem than marijuana. Look what the tobacco companies did with cigarettes. If you think the state is any better, look at how it markets lottery tickets. Sure, play responsibly, and cigarettes aren't addictive. Tobacco companies want kids to think smoking is "cool," and the state wants you to think "you're a winner." [continues 191 words]
It's good that U.S. Attorney Thomas Delahanty wanted to clarify his position when it comes to state and federal laws regarding medical marijuana. Imagine the confusion if he had wanted to muddy the waters. In response to Maine lawmakers who are seeking to amend the state's medical marijuana program, Delahanty wrote that although all use of marijuana is illegal under federal law, the U.S. Department of Justice would not spend its limited resources to prosecute sick people who use the drug under a doctor's supervision. [continues 326 words]
Many medicines come with side effects, but few can compare with medical marijuana's: What other drug, when used as directed, could land you in jail? That's because even though 16 states, including Maine, have legalized the use of marijuana in some applications, the federal government still considers it to be illegal under any circumstance. To confuse matters even more, the U.S. Department of Justice has sent mixed signals about how it views use of the drug. Early in his tenure, Attorney General Eric Holder gave states reassurance that his prosecutors would not go after medicinal users of marijuana. But recently, some U.S. attorneys, including one in Rhode Island, have announced that they would not look the other way at the establishment of legal marijuana growing and selling businesses, even if they were regulated by the state. [continues 253 words]
