DHHS DECRIES CALIFORNIA-STYLE POT DISPENSARY

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.

Creating a social setting for the dispensation of medical marijuana
is unhealthy because it promotes more marijuana use than is medically
necessary and puts users and the public at risk if customers drive
home under the influence, said John Thiele of Maine's Department of
Health and Human Services.

In California, which also allows marijuana to be distributed for
medical purposes, many dispensaries have become popular hangouts, he
said, and that's one reason why California has run into problems with
the federal government, which considers all marijuana use illegal.

"We don't want that to occur here," Thiele said. "You don't encourage
people to hang out in the local pharmacy."

Wellness Connection of Maine, formerly Northeast Patients Group, is
leasing a roughly 6,000-square-foot space at 685 Congress St., behind
the Local 188 restaurant. The nonprofit group plans to open its
dispensary late next month. City officials say they expect to award
an occupancy permit before the new year.

Becky DeKeuster, a former California resident who is executive
director of Wellness Connection of Maine, could not be reached for
comment to address Thiele's concerns about the plan for the dispensary.

Wellness Connection of Maine opened dispensaries recently in
Thomaston and Hallowell, and plans to open one soon in Brewer. The
Portland facility will be the first medical marijuana dispensary in
Cumberland County.

The five dispensaries that are open now in Maine, including the one
in Thomaston operated by Wellness Connection, don't have vapor
lounges or the kinds of social amenities being promoted for the one
in Portland, Thiele said.

While Maine's rules allow qualified customers to consume marijuana at
dispensaries if it is baked into food, they do not allow people to
smoke marijuana or inhale vapors, he said.

Vaporization, in which marijuana's active compounds are boiled off
into a vapor, lets users avoid the irritating and carcinogenic
effects of smoking.

Thiele said the state doesn't plan to take action before Wellness
Connection of Maine starts operating its dispensary in Portland. The
state has given the nonprofit group licenses for exclusive rights to
run dispensaries in four of eight districts statewide.

Timothy Smale, who operates the Remedy Compassion Center dispensary
in Auburn, said no dispensary in Maine offers the kinds of services
that are being promoted in Portland by Wellness Connection of Maine.

Employees at his dispensary in the Auburn Plaza counsel customers on
the most effective ways to use marijuana for their specific health issues.

He said he strongly recommends that people don't smoke marijuana,
because cannabis smoke contains many of the same carcinogens as
tobacco smoke. Instead, they should inhale vapors, he said, and his
dispensary sells vaporizers that people can use at home.

He said his customers haven't expressed interest in using marijuana
at his facility or getting other services, such as acupuncture.

"We consider ourselves like a pharmacy -- a safe and secure place to
buy medical cannabis. You don't consume your medicine in a pharmacy.
You purchase your medicine."

Under state law, patients must have certain qualifying illnesses and
doctors' prescriptions to be eligible to use medical marijuana.