Robert Celt
New Member
Alternative Therapies in Salem is hard to find. It's off the main thoroughfares, tucked between woods, a dilapidated factory and train tracks flanked by stacks of old railroad ties. Unless you're looking for it, it's easy to miss the small white sign marking the entrance to the first medical marijuana dispensary in the state.
Alternative Therapies has submitted an application to open a second medical marijuana dispensary on Osprey Road in Saugus, a small pockmarked side street that connects Route 1 and Route 99.
At a Board of Selectmen meeting in September, Town Meeting member Al DiNardo suggested Osprey Road would be an appropriate location for Alternative Therapies.
"It's as close to the edge of town as you can get," DiNardo said at the time. "A dispensary is a destination that doesn't need high visibility. This tucks it away."
The proposed dispensary site is located in the overlay district for medical marijuana treatment centers approved by Town Meeting members in 2014, which stretches from Route 1 at the Melrose, Revere and Malden town lines up to the former Weylu's site. Route 99 binds the district on the other side from the Melrose line to the merge point of Route 99 and Route 1.
Bill Horrigan strongly opposes the placement of Alternative Therapies on Osprey Road. Horrigan is the longtime owner of Business Copy Associates, which abuts the proposed site.
BCA Vice President and General Manager David McGeney said that by suggesting that Alternative Therapies should be relegated to a side street near the Melrose border, town officials have indicated they harbor concerns about the medical marijuana dispensary opening its doors in Saugus.
"Putting it at the far reaches of the Saugus line somehow makes it okay because it impacts the fewest number of Saugus homeowners," McGeney said. "Well you know what? It impacts us, it impacts our employees and it impacts our customers. We don't want it."
Alternative Therapies Executive Director Chris Edwards said that many are in serious need of access to a medical marijuana dispensary in a convenient location such as Osprey Road.
State Health Department data counts 18,476 active certified marijuana patients as of Dec. 31, with more than 2,500 people obtaining the certification in December alone. That number is expected to grow as the process is streamlined.
"It's all about patient access," Edwards said. "The state regulators want to have responsibly operated facilities geographically distributed across the state in order to reach the most patients that we can. Patients that we see have gone through months or years of conventional medical treatments and they've exhausted those."
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Massachusetts: Medical Marijuana Dispensary Proposed In Saugus
Author: Jeannette Hinkle
Contact: Wicked Local Saugus
Photo Credit: Jeannette Hinkle
Website: Wicked Local Saugus
Alternative Therapies has submitted an application to open a second medical marijuana dispensary on Osprey Road in Saugus, a small pockmarked side street that connects Route 1 and Route 99.
At a Board of Selectmen meeting in September, Town Meeting member Al DiNardo suggested Osprey Road would be an appropriate location for Alternative Therapies.
"It's as close to the edge of town as you can get," DiNardo said at the time. "A dispensary is a destination that doesn't need high visibility. This tucks it away."
The proposed dispensary site is located in the overlay district for medical marijuana treatment centers approved by Town Meeting members in 2014, which stretches from Route 1 at the Melrose, Revere and Malden town lines up to the former Weylu's site. Route 99 binds the district on the other side from the Melrose line to the merge point of Route 99 and Route 1.
Bill Horrigan strongly opposes the placement of Alternative Therapies on Osprey Road. Horrigan is the longtime owner of Business Copy Associates, which abuts the proposed site.
BCA Vice President and General Manager David McGeney said that by suggesting that Alternative Therapies should be relegated to a side street near the Melrose border, town officials have indicated they harbor concerns about the medical marijuana dispensary opening its doors in Saugus.
"Putting it at the far reaches of the Saugus line somehow makes it okay because it impacts the fewest number of Saugus homeowners," McGeney said. "Well you know what? It impacts us, it impacts our employees and it impacts our customers. We don't want it."
Alternative Therapies Executive Director Chris Edwards said that many are in serious need of access to a medical marijuana dispensary in a convenient location such as Osprey Road.
State Health Department data counts 18,476 active certified marijuana patients as of Dec. 31, with more than 2,500 people obtaining the certification in December alone. That number is expected to grow as the process is streamlined.
"It's all about patient access," Edwards said. "The state regulators want to have responsibly operated facilities geographically distributed across the state in order to reach the most patients that we can. Patients that we see have gone through months or years of conventional medical treatments and they've exhausted those."
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Massachusetts: Medical Marijuana Dispensary Proposed In Saugus
Author: Jeannette Hinkle
Contact: Wicked Local Saugus
Photo Credit: Jeannette Hinkle
Website: Wicked Local Saugus