Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
One of the first medical marijuana dispensaries in Maryland will start selling the drug to patients in Rockville today, and Bill Askinazi says he's ready.
"It's amazing. It's really the start of the culmination of a four-year journey for us," Askinazi said.
Askinazi owns Potomac Holistics, a medical marijuana dispensary just off of Darnestown Road. It's one of 10 licensed marijuana dispensaries across Maryland – and one of three in Montgomery County – that have been cleared to open their doors. And it's one of the first across the state to actually start selling the drug to patients, many of whom have been anxiously awaiting this day.
"They're saying, 'We're tired of taking the prescription pills, we're tired of taking the opiates,'" said Askinazi, a former lawyer whose son treated his gastrointestinal problems with Marinol, a man-made version of THC, one of the active components of marijuana. "Basically, 'Please help us.'"
In 2013, Maryland took the first steps towards legalizing medical marijuana for people suffering from severe conditions like cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and more. It's taken more than four years to actually get the program off the ground. The state's rollout has been one of the slowest of the more than two-dozen medical marijuana programs across the country. Just over the border in D.C., medical marijuana has been legally sold in D.C. since 2013, and has more than 5,000 registered patients.
Initially, there wasn't much money set aside for the commission created to license growers, processors and sellers. Lawsuits also were filed over both geographic and racial diversity in the nascent industry. Then, actually writing the regulations for a good program took time.
Phil Goldberg, a licensed grower with 6,000 marijuana plants in Frederick County, who is also the president of the Maryland Cannabis Industry Association, said he didn't enjoy the long wait. But, ultimately, he said, it was worth it.
"Several other states already had medical cannabis programs. They were really Wild, Wild West," Goldberg said. "Maryland took a long time to get their regulations together, but it's because it's a really well-thought-out program."
For Askinazi, all that waiting is in the past, and he says he's just looking forward to letting patients into his dispensary. His business is on the second floor of a building in what could just be any other suburban office park, but inside the door, it's a different world: There's soothing music, subdued lighting and dark wood on the walls.
"What we want to do is we want to decompress people's anxiety and stress because they're coming here to be healed," Askinazi said.
From the waiting room, patients are greeted and ushered into another room where they consult with an employee and actually buy their marijuana. Once they've chosen their strain, Askinazi says patients will have a number of marijuana products to pick from.
"Beside cannabinoid flowers, we have balms, we have tinctures, sublingual oils, which are put under the tongue, and different types of delivery mechanisms are available, including vapes," he explained.
There are already more than 13,000 people who have signed up with hopes of eventually becoming medical marijuana patients, and of those, more than 8,000 are now allowed to purchase it. But because not all growers and dispensaries are open yet, Askinazi said he expected opening day would be a busy one.
"We're probably going to put in quotas, so that everybody won't get as much as they want or need, but they'll get something," he said.
Still developing
Maryland's medical marijuana program is still in its infancy, and more growers, processors and dispensers will open in the coming months. Once the program is fully functional, there will be 102 dispensaries, 15 processors and 15 growers across the state.
There are dispensaries that will soon open in Bethesda, Gaithersburg and Silver Spring. One of those, HerbaFi, is owned by Terry Saad and situated right across the street from the Silver Spring Metro station. Saad said it's been a long road from gaining initial state approval to actually finding a place to put his dispensary, but once he opens his doors in January, the challenges will have paid off.
"I can't wait to see our patients and our patients' faces and reactions once we can help them purchase something that they've been wanting to purchase for such a long time," he said.
Askinazi echoes that sentiment: "We are excited to be pioneers in this cannabis industry, yes. And we're more excited to see how many people we can help, and how we're going to help them."
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Weed In Waiting: Years After It Was Made Legal, Medical Marijuana Sales Start In Maryland | WAMU
Author: Martin Austermuhle
Contact: Get In Touch | WAMU
Photo Credit: Martin Austermuhle
Website: WAMU | American University Radio
"It's amazing. It's really the start of the culmination of a four-year journey for us," Askinazi said.
Askinazi owns Potomac Holistics, a medical marijuana dispensary just off of Darnestown Road. It's one of 10 licensed marijuana dispensaries across Maryland – and one of three in Montgomery County – that have been cleared to open their doors. And it's one of the first across the state to actually start selling the drug to patients, many of whom have been anxiously awaiting this day.
"They're saying, 'We're tired of taking the prescription pills, we're tired of taking the opiates,'" said Askinazi, a former lawyer whose son treated his gastrointestinal problems with Marinol, a man-made version of THC, one of the active components of marijuana. "Basically, 'Please help us.'"
In 2013, Maryland took the first steps towards legalizing medical marijuana for people suffering from severe conditions like cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and more. It's taken more than four years to actually get the program off the ground. The state's rollout has been one of the slowest of the more than two-dozen medical marijuana programs across the country. Just over the border in D.C., medical marijuana has been legally sold in D.C. since 2013, and has more than 5,000 registered patients.
Initially, there wasn't much money set aside for the commission created to license growers, processors and sellers. Lawsuits also were filed over both geographic and racial diversity in the nascent industry. Then, actually writing the regulations for a good program took time.
Phil Goldberg, a licensed grower with 6,000 marijuana plants in Frederick County, who is also the president of the Maryland Cannabis Industry Association, said he didn't enjoy the long wait. But, ultimately, he said, it was worth it.
"Several other states already had medical cannabis programs. They were really Wild, Wild West," Goldberg said. "Maryland took a long time to get their regulations together, but it's because it's a really well-thought-out program."
For Askinazi, all that waiting is in the past, and he says he's just looking forward to letting patients into his dispensary. His business is on the second floor of a building in what could just be any other suburban office park, but inside the door, it's a different world: There's soothing music, subdued lighting and dark wood on the walls.
"What we want to do is we want to decompress people's anxiety and stress because they're coming here to be healed," Askinazi said.
From the waiting room, patients are greeted and ushered into another room where they consult with an employee and actually buy their marijuana. Once they've chosen their strain, Askinazi says patients will have a number of marijuana products to pick from.
"Beside cannabinoid flowers, we have balms, we have tinctures, sublingual oils, which are put under the tongue, and different types of delivery mechanisms are available, including vapes," he explained.
There are already more than 13,000 people who have signed up with hopes of eventually becoming medical marijuana patients, and of those, more than 8,000 are now allowed to purchase it. But because not all growers and dispensaries are open yet, Askinazi said he expected opening day would be a busy one.
"We're probably going to put in quotas, so that everybody won't get as much as they want or need, but they'll get something," he said.
Still developing
Maryland's medical marijuana program is still in its infancy, and more growers, processors and dispensers will open in the coming months. Once the program is fully functional, there will be 102 dispensaries, 15 processors and 15 growers across the state.
There are dispensaries that will soon open in Bethesda, Gaithersburg and Silver Spring. One of those, HerbaFi, is owned by Terry Saad and situated right across the street from the Silver Spring Metro station. Saad said it's been a long road from gaining initial state approval to actually finding a place to put his dispensary, but once he opens his doors in January, the challenges will have paid off.
"I can't wait to see our patients and our patients' faces and reactions once we can help them purchase something that they've been wanting to purchase for such a long time," he said.
Askinazi echoes that sentiment: "We are excited to be pioneers in this cannabis industry, yes. And we're more excited to see how many people we can help, and how we're going to help them."
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Weed In Waiting: Years After It Was Made Legal, Medical Marijuana Sales Start In Maryland | WAMU
Author: Martin Austermuhle
Contact: Get In Touch | WAMU
Photo Credit: Martin Austermuhle
Website: WAMU | American University Radio
