The East Coast Stumble In Legalizing Medical Marijuana

New Jersey is launching its distribution network with six non-profit, alternative treatment centers, with two in each of the state’s three regions. The first two in each region are required to be nonprofit, after which, approved alternative treatment centers may be either nonprofit or for-profit, according to the New Jersey law. It is undetermined when patients may begin to apply for the state medical marijuana program.

Details regarding how and when these state-licensed dispensaries will begin operating are somewhat hazy, especially in New Jersey and Maine where state health departments are still figuring out program details.

Rhode Island has the clearest deadlines for the application process. The state will stop taking applications on May 17 and then announce what organization will become the first compassion center on July 10.

As of early April, however, not one application had been received.

Alexandre says even if the state winds up receiving multiple applications there’s no guarantee any one of them will qualify.

Vermont, which legalized medical marijuana in 2004, has no legal provisions for dispensaries, but currently there are several House bills pending in committee which propose a distribution system. Two of the bills consider establishing not-for-profit 'compassion centers', one of which also proposes a study be conducted regarding what changes in law are necessary to permit pharmacies to distribute medical marijuana. Another bill proposes that marijuana seized in criminal cases be distributed to registered medical marijuana patients at liquor stores under the regulation of the department of liquor control.

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Worries About Price

If that isn't enough uncertainty, medical marijuana patients don't even know what the official centers will charge.

“Patients get a little apprehensive because they hear that some dispensaries have a good profit margin, but those are prices they just cannot afford,” says Leppanen.

In Denver, for instance, the average cost of an ounce of marijuana is $350, but it can range from $200 to $500.

The Rhode Island Department of Health will not regulate the prices of the medical marijuana. The fact that there may be only one dispensary with unregulated prices worries patients because a lot of medical marijuana patients in the state are from lower-income brackets who are already struggling financially, says Leppanen.

“We hope that they would be altruistic and would handle their business so people would not be priced out, but it’s not something we will regulate,” says Alexandre.

Savvy entrepreneurs are already trying to tap into the new market.

Rob Correy, a Colorado attorney who specializes in criminal defense and medical marijuana, says he receives numerous phone calls from dispensary owners on a regular basis asking about how they can set up shop in East Coast states.

Despite years of uncertainty and waiting, some medical marijuana patients remain optimistic.

Mary-Anne Hanley, a 52-year-old Rhode Island resident with chronic Lyme's disease, says she thinks the state-licensed dispensaries are a good idea because they are less-likely targets of federal raids.

“I’m hopeful about it,” says Hanley. “I would let them be my caregiver, if I feel like they are reasonable with their prices."