The state’s first medical marijuana dispensary will open at the end of this month.
This comes nearly four years after passage of a law authorizing the center. Delays came amid concerns about the stance of the federal government regarding medical marijuana and finding a company to operate the site.
Last year, it was reported the center would open in early 2015.
The First State Compassion Center. will open at 37 Germay Drive, in an in an industrial area just west of Wilmington. The phone number is 302 543-2100.
Use of medical marijuana remains tightly regulated with prescriptions allowed for only a few conditions authorized for use of the cannabis grown at the center.
The center will hold a patient orientation session prior to the opening on June 26. Those with last names from A-M can visit the center on June 18 from: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. can pre-register. Those with last names from N to Z can pre-register on June 19th during the same hours.
The center has set up a Facebook page that is responding to some questions.
Only those with valid medical marijuana cards and state ID can attend the orientation.
According to the Compassion Center website physicians may authorize a patient to use marijuana to treat symptoms of cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV and AIDS, Hepatitis C, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease or the physical manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Conditions that cause severe, debilitating pain, wasting syndrome, intractable nausea and seizures are also covered by the medical marijuana law.
A law that would allow use of medical marijuana for children suffering from seizures that are not treatable by other means recently passed in both houses.
The center will only be allowed to cultivate up to 150 marijuana plants, and keep inventory of no more than 1,500 ounces of the drug. Stringent security and financial requirements are also in place.
Fewer than 400 people carry the cards, USA Today reported.
Former State Trooper and lobbyist Mark Lally heads the center. He has headed M.S. Lally & Associates, “a governmental affairs and strategy consulting firm specializing in government relations in the State of Delaware, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Lally was involved in a lawsuit with a former partner over plans to open a marijuana dispensary downstate. However, that lawsuit was dismissed, apparently after a settlement was reached, the Cape Gazette reported.
There have been continuing calls for a medical marijuana dispensary downstate, although the law calls for the establishment of one center prior to any expansion.
Click here for a Business Daily story from 2014 on the center and its organizer.
