Marijuana clinic finds home at last - in Bellmawr

Two years after angry residents scuttled plans to open a medical marijuana dispensary in a vacated Maple Shade furniture store, the operators announced they have found a new location - a former construction office in a Bellmawr industrial park.

The Camden County site, just off the New Jersey Turnpike and Route 42, was selected by Compassionate Sciences Inc. after borough officials welcomed the new business, Andrei Bogolubov, the dispensary's spokesman, said Thursday.

The nonprofit expects to open in about six months and may serve as many as 3,000 patients when it reaches full capacity, Bogolubov said. Currently, about 1,200 patients are registered statewide, but that number is expected to grow as more dispensaries come on line.

This would be South Jersey's second dispensary, after the anticipated fall opening of a facility where cannabis is already growing inside a former casino warehouse in Egg Harbor Township, close to Atlantic City.

Ironically, the Egg Harbor dispensary operators had received a cooler reception when they approached Bellmawr officials more than two years ago at a time when medical marijuana was still a new concept in New Jersey.

Bellmawr Mayor Frank Filipek remembers that back then the proposal "was a scary situation because we didn't know anything about it. . . . The details weren't there and no dispensary was open yet."

Filipek said that he and other borough officials had rejected the plans back then partly because they were afraid "it was going to be like California where people can walk in and buy marijuana."

Since then, the state's first and so far only dispensary has opened in Montclair, just outside New York City. It served about 120 patients before it closed for the summer.

Filipek said he also has learned since then that the rules in New Jersey require patients to be registered and to get prescriptions from registered doctors before they can purchase cannabis from a dispensary.

Filipek said that Compassionate Sciences also told borough officials that the nonprofit would be selling marijuana that's only "one-third of the strength sold on the street," so there won't be the danger of "addicts hanging around."

He said that the new dispensary location is at least two blocks away from homes and is in an industrial park with a carpet warehouse, a countertop supplier, and other businesses.

In November, the planning board unanimously approved the plans. Unlike the crowd in Maple Shade, which cited fears of increased crime in the neighborhood, no one objected, Filipek said.

"The truth is, I'm still leery - it's marijuana. . . . But the doctors say people need it," Filipek said.

"We're so excited," Bogolubov said, saying the dispensary changed its approach after its experience in Maple Shade. He said the dispensary held "significant conversations with six towns" to persuade them that many precautions would be taken to prevent problems, including 24-hour video surveillance of the property.

After receiving Bellmawr's approval, he said the dispensary negotiated a lease for the 2,000-square-foot former construction office and for a nearby 16,000-square-foot warehouse where cannabis will be cultivated.

Bogolubov declined to pinpoint what caused the nearly nine-month delay in announcing its location. A few weeks ago, renovations began at the dispensary, and state background checks are underway.

The dispensary will also need to get work permits for renovations, a certificate of occupancy from the borough, and from the state, permits to begin growing cannabis and to open.

"All of these things are running in parallel," Bogolubov said. "We should be open well within six months."