HIGH HOPES FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA CENTER IN PORTSMOUTH

Seeks Permit for Facility on High Point Avenue

PORTSMOUTH - A Middletown man hopes to be one of the 15 applicants
chosen by the state to open a medical marijuana sales center - and he
hopes to win Portsmouth's approval to open the marijuana sales and
growing operation in the industrial park.

Seth H. Bock, of 565 Wolcott Avenue, Middletown, has applied for a
special use permit to allow a retail sales business in a light
industrial zone. The Zoning Board of Review will hear the proposal at
its June 17 meeting, beginning at 7 p.m. in Town Hall.

According to the application, Mr. Bock would sell medical marijuana as
well as grow medical marijuana in Unit B-6 of 200 High Point Avenue.
He calls his company the Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center.

The center's business hours would be Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 7
p.m., and on Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Mr. Bock's application states that he has reviewed his plans with
Portsmouth Police Chief Lance Hebert and Portsmouth Fire Chief Jeffrey
Lynch. The application says that the security plan discussed with
Police Chief Hebert specifies an intercom system screening people for
admittance; that employees will have card-key access and be trained
for emergencies; video surveillance; and that a security monitoring
center will have a direct line to the police dispatcher. For the
growing operation, the application says the unit will be modified to
meet fire-code regulations.

Fire Chief Lynch, contacted Monday, said he remembers meeting with Mr.
Bock but does not recall discussing plans for a growing operation,
something he expects he would have remembered. Before the zoning board
rules on the application, Chief Lynch said he wants to see a plan for
the growing operation to learn what kind of equipment will be used and
to ensure that everything is up to code.

Asked if he has any experience with marijuana-growing operations,
Chief Lynch said, "I can honestly say no - not professionally or
personally." He knows of fires that have started from heat lamps used
to warm reptiles, but none stemming from marijuana-growing.

Mr. Bock is an owner of Newport Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine in
Middletown. The website lists him as a doctor of acupuncture who
specializes in Chinese herbal medicine, Asian therapeutic massage (Tui
Na), and craniosacral therapy, and also serves as a medical research
ethicist for the New England School of Acupuncture. Mr. Bock also
indicates he is a doctor in his application to the town.

Mr. Bock received a master's degree in acupuncture and oriental
medicine from the New England School of Acupuncture in Massachusetts,
in 2001. Receiving his Rhode Island acupuncturist license in 2002
granted Mr. Bock the ability to refer to himself as a doctor of
acupuncture.

The RI Department of Health has received 15 applications from persons
seeking to open the first compassion centers selling medical marijuana
since the state's Medical Marijuana Act was enacted in 2006. Up to
three permits to open compassion centers may be issued by the Health
Department. A public hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June
29 at 3 Capitol Hill, Providence. The Health Department says the
permits may be issued by the end of July.

The law allows compassion centers to possess 12 mature marijuana
plants and 2.5 ounces of marijuana for each registered patient for
whom the center is a registered primary caregiver. According to
reports, there are 1,728 patients registered to use medical marijuana.