Robert Celt
New Member
This is no psychedelic head shop, and it's no drab doctor's office either.
The medical-marijuana dispensary that Patriot Care will officially open Tuesday will be a nondescript, highly-secure, modern center that company officials say is about just one thing: treating patients who need medicinal marijuana to treat chronic pain, cancer, Parkinson's disease or other ailments.
The industry may still have a taboo and its share of detractors, but Patriot Care does not shy away from the plant that has gained acceptance in nearly half the states for its medical benefits and even in a few for its recreational appeal.
"We're not embarrassed about what we do," said Bob Mayerson, the chief executive officer at Patriot Care.
Photos along a wall inside the sales office show marijuana leaves, but otherwise there aren't many clues for what the space at 70 Industrial Ave. East is for. That's on purpose. After all, anyone with a state-approved identification card for medical marijuana would know where to find it, and otherwise such a facility doesn't exactly need to stand out.
A separate, high-security cultivation facility run by Patriot Care about a mile away in a former assembly warehouse on Lincoln Street has no identifying markers at all, and is closed to the public.
Patriot Care's Lowell facilities -- only the state's fifth such operation -- opened for business Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony slated Tuesday to include city officials and local legislators, a sign of the warm welcome the operation received in Lowell.
Kevin Murphy, who became city manager shortly after Patriot Care was chosen by the city, actually pushed for the cultivation center, saying it would bring more jobs and revenue to the city. The host agreement Lowell signed with Patriot Care commits the company to paying the city $25,000 for each dispensary that uses the Lowell cultivation center.
Patriot Care also has licenses to operate marijuana facilities in Boston and the western Massachusetts town of Greenfield, both using marijuana grown in Lowell.
The Boston facility, just off Downtown Crossing, could open by late this spring, and Greenfield over the summer.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health approved the Lowell site in 2014 as one of four medical-marijuana sites for Middlesex County. Patriot Care was one of five applicants to express interest in Lowell at the time.
Patriot Care officials still needed to win over neighborhood group leaders. Nancy Judge, the co-chair of the Highlands Neighborhood Association, said Mayerson gave an in-depth presentation and answered her concerns. "So we welcomed the Patriot Care facility to the neighborhood," she said.
"Give us the opportunity to educate people on a medical basis, and we can turn people around," said Dennis Kunian, Patriot Care's vice president of government affairs and community relations.
It may help that Mayerson comes from a retail background, having been the president and chief financial and operating officer of Eastern Mountain Sports and also serving in financial roles at Pepsi and Staples. Mayerson said Patriot Care was somewhere he said he could buy into the mission.
"This is very rewarding," he said while giving a tour of the facility last week.
Running the medical-marijuana operation in Lowell is retail-meets-doctor's office.
A patient must come alone, or with only a caregiver, and show a medical-marijuana identification card to even be let in the building. He or she checks in at the front desk and then is called by name -- just first name, to keep some confidentiality -- when the time is right, just as it would be in a doctor's office. But the patient then goes into the sales room, where trained workers explain which strain of marijuana is best for which ailment.
Each strain is shown inside a small glass jar on top of one of about 10 display tables scattered around the room. It's a modern look, with wood and glass, and exposed ventilation. But the focus isn't just on aesthetics. Anyone standing in the sales room will be spotted on about 10 cameras.
Patriot Care will have four to six different marijuana strains to start, and plans to expand to as many as 20, with names like Northern Lights, OG Kush and Charlotte's Web. Various strains are better for different ailments.
The facility will sell accessories like pipes and vaporizers, as well as edibles, like brownies and cookies that are made in its commercial-grade kitchen.
"People like to have it different ways, and it depends on your condition," Mayerson said.
Patients will not be allowed to use the products in the facility.
The Lowell facility is state's fifth, behind Ayer, Brockton, Northampton and Salem. It will be Patriot Care's first facility but the company that manages it, Columbia Care, already runs several centers in Arizona, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Medical-Marijuana Dispensary Opens In Lowell, Mass
Author: Grant Welker
Contact: Lowell Sun
Photo Credit: Chris Tierney
Website: Lowell Sun
The medical-marijuana dispensary that Patriot Care will officially open Tuesday will be a nondescript, highly-secure, modern center that company officials say is about just one thing: treating patients who need medicinal marijuana to treat chronic pain, cancer, Parkinson's disease or other ailments.
The industry may still have a taboo and its share of detractors, but Patriot Care does not shy away from the plant that has gained acceptance in nearly half the states for its medical benefits and even in a few for its recreational appeal.
"We're not embarrassed about what we do," said Bob Mayerson, the chief executive officer at Patriot Care.
Photos along a wall inside the sales office show marijuana leaves, but otherwise there aren't many clues for what the space at 70 Industrial Ave. East is for. That's on purpose. After all, anyone with a state-approved identification card for medical marijuana would know where to find it, and otherwise such a facility doesn't exactly need to stand out.
A separate, high-security cultivation facility run by Patriot Care about a mile away in a former assembly warehouse on Lincoln Street has no identifying markers at all, and is closed to the public.
Patriot Care's Lowell facilities -- only the state's fifth such operation -- opened for business Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony slated Tuesday to include city officials and local legislators, a sign of the warm welcome the operation received in Lowell.
Kevin Murphy, who became city manager shortly after Patriot Care was chosen by the city, actually pushed for the cultivation center, saying it would bring more jobs and revenue to the city. The host agreement Lowell signed with Patriot Care commits the company to paying the city $25,000 for each dispensary that uses the Lowell cultivation center.
Patriot Care also has licenses to operate marijuana facilities in Boston and the western Massachusetts town of Greenfield, both using marijuana grown in Lowell.
The Boston facility, just off Downtown Crossing, could open by late this spring, and Greenfield over the summer.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health approved the Lowell site in 2014 as one of four medical-marijuana sites for Middlesex County. Patriot Care was one of five applicants to express interest in Lowell at the time.
Patriot Care officials still needed to win over neighborhood group leaders. Nancy Judge, the co-chair of the Highlands Neighborhood Association, said Mayerson gave an in-depth presentation and answered her concerns. "So we welcomed the Patriot Care facility to the neighborhood," she said.
"Give us the opportunity to educate people on a medical basis, and we can turn people around," said Dennis Kunian, Patriot Care's vice president of government affairs and community relations.
It may help that Mayerson comes from a retail background, having been the president and chief financial and operating officer of Eastern Mountain Sports and also serving in financial roles at Pepsi and Staples. Mayerson said Patriot Care was somewhere he said he could buy into the mission.
"This is very rewarding," he said while giving a tour of the facility last week.
Running the medical-marijuana operation in Lowell is retail-meets-doctor's office.
A patient must come alone, or with only a caregiver, and show a medical-marijuana identification card to even be let in the building. He or she checks in at the front desk and then is called by name -- just first name, to keep some confidentiality -- when the time is right, just as it would be in a doctor's office. But the patient then goes into the sales room, where trained workers explain which strain of marijuana is best for which ailment.
Each strain is shown inside a small glass jar on top of one of about 10 display tables scattered around the room. It's a modern look, with wood and glass, and exposed ventilation. But the focus isn't just on aesthetics. Anyone standing in the sales room will be spotted on about 10 cameras.
Patriot Care will have four to six different marijuana strains to start, and plans to expand to as many as 20, with names like Northern Lights, OG Kush and Charlotte's Web. Various strains are better for different ailments.
The facility will sell accessories like pipes and vaporizers, as well as edibles, like brownies and cookies that are made in its commercial-grade kitchen.
"People like to have it different ways, and it depends on your condition," Mayerson said.
Patients will not be allowed to use the products in the facility.
The Lowell facility is state's fifth, behind Ayer, Brockton, Northampton and Salem. It will be Patriot Care's first facility but the company that manages it, Columbia Care, already runs several centers in Arizona, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Medical-Marijuana Dispensary Opens In Lowell, Mass
Author: Grant Welker
Contact: Lowell Sun
Photo Credit: Chris Tierney
Website: Lowell Sun
