BY R.J. DELUKE<\/p>\n
New York state is expected to take the
\nnext big step in its plan to provide medical
\nmarijuana to patients with ailments including
\ncancer, HIV\/AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS),
\nParkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n
There are 43 applications being considered
\nby the state. One of them is from a group
\nthat would cultivate its crop in Plattsburgh
\nand wants to locate one of its dispensaries
\nin Halfmoon.<\/p>\n
Among the others is a location just to
\nthe north in the Washington County town of
\nJackson–north of Cambridge and east of
\nGreenwich– on Plains Road.<\/p>\n
In July 2014, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the
\nstate Legislature enacted the Compassionate
\nCare Act. It lays out the rules for the program
\nand how it would be regulated and dispensed.<\/p>\n
Douglas Butdorf of North Country Roots
\nin Plattsburgh has the application to grow
\nmarijuana in Plattsburgh. He said he has a
\nlease on a building in Halfmoon and is approaching
\nofficials about what he needs to get
\nthe ball rolling–if he’s successful in getting
\na state license.
\nThe companies who are awarded licenses
\nwill be permitted to open as many as four
\ndispensaries.<\/p>\n
For any county that contains one of the
\nlicensed growing sites, for every $10 million in
\nrevenue, the host county would get $160,000.<\/p>\n
There is also a 7 percent state excise tax on
\nall the proceeds from sales. Host counties
\nfor growing facilities would get 22.5 percent
\nof that 7 percent. Host counties where the
\ndispensaries are located would also get a
\npercentage of that tax revenue.
\nButdorf noted the excise tax “is not receipt driven. Patients will not see the tax on their
\nreceipt. It is a 7 percent tax taken off the top
\non total sales.”<\/p>\n
If things go as Butdorf hopes, Saratoga
\nCounty would get an occasional check from
\nNew York state via the excise tax setup.<\/p>\n
If the dispensary is running, he will employ
\n8-15 people, “depending upon how fast
\npatients come on board with the New York
\nstate medical marijuana program,” he said.
\nIf license is approved in July, his group
\nwould take three to four months to retrofit
\nthe building “and go from there.”<\/p>\n
The Washington County application was
\nfiled by Ted Berndt who bought the Washington
\nCounty Agri-Business Park in a tax
\nauction with thoughts of turning it into an
\nagri-buisness park. There are “various valueadded
\nagricultural activities” in the park
\ncurrently, he said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve put in an application for a cultivation
\nsite in the town of Jackson, in Washington
\nCounty,” he said. The marijuana cultivation
\nspace would be a 12-acre secured site.
\n“We have a tremendous amount of public
\nsupport, local county and state,” he noted.<\/p>\n
In March, the Washington County Board
\nof Supervisors passed a resolution of support
\nand Berndt also received a letter of support
\nfrom the Washington County Local Development
\nCorp.
\nBerndt owns the site in a partnership with
\nother farmers in the area.<\/p>\n
He said if the license is successful, it will
\nbe leased as Compassionate Relief Centers of
\nNew York, which will conduct the business. He
\nalso has leases on four other sites, two upstate
\nand two downstate, that would become the dispensaries.
\nBerndt anticipates 25-30 jobs being created
\nat the site, “meaningful agricultural jobs in
\nWashington County” and similar numbers
\nat the dispensaries. He did not name where
\nthose would be.<\/p>\n
Berndt said the state Department of Health
\ntold him the time line for finding out who gets
\na license is early July, but with over 40 applicants,
\nit might take longer, he thinks.<\/p>\n
“We are in a fully funded partnership with
\nthe Greater New York Hospital Association”
\nand its for-profit arm, said Berndt.
\n“We see it as a patient health care delivery
\nissue, so partnering with a hospital is the
\nbest way to do it,” he said. “We think we’ve
\ngot a very good application … We’ll see how
\nit shakes out.”<\/p>\n
Greater New York Hospital Association is
\na trade association comprising nearly 250
\nhospitals and continuing care facilities, both
\nvoluntary and public throughout the state, as
\nwell as New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode
\nIsland. It helps hospitals deliver patient care
\nin the most cost-effective way.<\/p>\n
According to its website, it operates the
\nlargest business enterprise of any trade association
\nin the U.S. through its for-profit arm,
\nGNYHA Ventures Inc. These efforts generate
\nbillions in commerce while also delivering
\nvalue for its members. Working with the Association,
\nGNYHA Ventures, Inc. navigates the
\nworld of business advocacy to help improve
\nhospital operations and to provide industryleading
\ntransparency and cost reduction.<\/p>\n
The 43 applicants were required to pay two
\nfees. One is a $200,000 fee. All unsuccessful
\napplicants will receive a refund for that fee.
\nThe other $10,000 fee is non-refundable. That
\nmeans the state will end up collecting $1.43
\nmillion from the application process.<\/p>\n
Cuomo said in 2014 that the program is a
\nstep forward “to provide much-needed relief
\nto New Yorkers living with extraordinary pain,
\nwhile balancing the need to safeguard general
\npublic health and safety.”<\/p>\n
He said the proposed regulations “are
\ndesigned with that in mind, so that we can
\nalleviate suffering for patients with serious
\nconditions while also ensuring that medical
\nmarijuana is dispensed and administered
\nresponsibly.”<\/p>\n
Entities that wanted to manufacture and
\ndistribute medical marijuana applied through
\nthe Department of Health.<\/p>\n
Registered organization licenses will last
\nfor two-years, state officials said. Registered
\norganizations would be required to maintain
\nseparate facilities for manufacturing and
\ndispensing medical marijuana and would have
\nto meet strict security guidelines.<\/p>\n
The DOH commissioner would approve the
\nforms and delivery systems through which
\nmedical marijuana could be offered, excluding
\nsmoking, which will be prohibited. Each
\nregistered organization would initially be permitted
\nto produce up to five types of medical
\nmarijuana products. Independent laboratory
\ntesting would verify cannabinoid content to
\nensure consistency.<\/p>\n
“Our goal is to ensure that New Yorkers have
\naccess to the treatment they need through
\na controlled, regulated process,” said acting
\nCommissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. “As an
\nadded level of security, physicians must review
\ntheir patients’ history of controlled substances
\nin the I-STOP database before a certification
\ncan be issued and before medical marijuana
\ncan be dispensed.”<\/p>\n
Registered organizations will be able to
\ndispense up to a 30-day supply of medical
\nmarijuana to certified patients with a valid
\nregistry identification card. Patients may
\nonly possess up to a 30-day supply of medical
\nmarijuana. The medical marijuana will be
\ndispensed in a sealed and properly labeled
\npackage, with a safety insert included.
\nPatients must keep the medical marijuana
\nin the original packaging in which it was
\ndispensed.<\/p>\n
The program will make medical marijuana
\naccessible to patients with conditions including
\ncancer, HIV\/AIDS, ALS, Parkinson’s
\ndisease, multiple sclerosis, damage to the
\nnervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective
\nneurological indication of intractable
\nspasticity, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel
\ndisease, neuropathies and Huntington’s
\ndisease. The law includes these conditions
\nwhen there is a clinical association with
\nor complication of the condition resulting
\nin cachexia or wasting syndrome, severe or
\nchronic pain, severe nausea, seizures; or
\nsevere or persistent muscle spasms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BY R.J. DELUKE New York state is expected to take the next big step in its plan to provide medical marijuana to patients with ailments including cancer, HIV\/AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. There are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[57,82,102,113],"class_list":["post-17275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-news","tag-business-news","tag-healthcare","tag-ny-state","tag-saratoga-county"],"yoast_head":"\r\n