CHESTERFIELD EYED FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA FACILITY

CHESTERFIELD -- The township may become home to South Jersey's first
medical marijuana growing facility.

Representatives from a West Trenton-based alternative treatment center
have informed officials that they're scouting locations in the
township for a growing facility, but have not named a specific
location nor submitted a site plan application to the Planning Board.

Compassionate Care Foundation Inc. canceled plans to appear before the
Township Committee several weeks ago and have not communicated since,
said Mayor Larry Durr, acknowledging the many unanswered questions
about the plan.

Key among them: Will it be solely a greenhouse, or will it be a
dispensary, too?

William Thomas, a Compassionate Care Foundation trustee, did not
return several phone calls for comment.

"We're in unchartered waters. The question is, do we look at this as
an agricultural crop or a do we look at this as a pharmaceutical
manufacturer?" said Durr, a retired farmer.

Despite media reports that the facility would be up and running by
Sept. 9, the organization hasn't filed a Planning Board application
and would need to do so by Saturday in order to be heard at the Sept.
13 meeting. Planning board applications must be filed 10 days before
meetings.

Planning board member Glenn McMahon said that permits are needed due
to the nature of this enterprise, which would likely entail a
greenhouse that required high-level security.

"It's a special crop they're growing, so they would need a special
facility," he said.

Compassionate Care Foundation is one of six nonprofits selected by the
state Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) in March to
operate alternative treatment centers (ATCs) for the state's Medicinal
Marijuana Program.

Compassionate Care Foundation's DHSS application indicated plans to
open a facility in Bellmawr in Camden County, an idea that went up in
smoke. Bellmawr Finance Director Maria Fasulo said that the nonprofit
a few months ago approached borough officials about possibly leasing
industrial space, but the plan never went forward.

New Jersey's medical marijuana law allows two ATCs each to operate in
the north, central and southern regions of the state; ATCs may both
dispense and grow medicinal marijuana.

Compassionate Sciences Inc. of Sea Cliff, N.Y., is the other ATC
licensed to operate in the Southern region and had planned top open a
facility in an undetermined location in Burlington or Camden County.
Attempts to reach the nonprofit were unsuccessful.

According to its plan submitted to the state DHSS, Compassionate Care
Foundation was founded by a group of former health department
regulators, community leaders, health care professionals, researchers
and nonprofit directors "to cultivate and dispense pharmaceutical
grade cannabis to meet medical needs."

Medical marijuana patients must register with the DHSS after receiving
a physician's certification of a debilitating medical condition for
which traditional drugs or treatments would not be effective, and for
which the potential benefits of marijuana would outweigh the health
risks, according to the law. The DHSS will maintain medical marijuana
user registries including the patient's certification and information
about the the position's physician and primary caregiver.

The law counts as debilitating medical conditions cancer, glaucoma,
positive HIV/AIDS; chronic or debilitating diseases or medical
conditions that produce cachexia or wasting syndrome, severe or
chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures, severe and persistent muscle
spasms; other medical conditions may be administratively be added by
the DHSS.

New Jersey in January 2010 became the 14th state in the nation to
legalize the use of marijuana for certain chronic medical conditions.
Medical marijuana programs are also in place in Alaska, Arizona,
California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana,
Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the
District of Columbia.