Four years later, Newton’s first medical marijuana dispensary is open for business.
Garden Remedies began accepting patients Tuesday in Newtonville – the ninth dispensary to come online in Massachusetts since voters legalized medical marijuana in 2012.
“We’ve all been working very hard to make medical marijuana safely and legally available for patients in Newton,” Dr. Karen Munkacy, the nonprofit dispensary’s founder and CEO, said. “We’re very excited to serve the people in this area.”
Munkacy survived breast cancer, after enduring four difficult months of chemotherapy. She didn’t use medical marijuana because it was illegal at the time, but the experience set her on the path that culminated Tuesday morning.
“After I was cured I decided that this really needed to be legally and safely available for people who were suffering as I was,” Munkacy, a Newton resident, said about medical marijuana. “It was really a nightmare, and I didn’t want anybody else to have to suffer the way I had to suffer.”
Munkacy, an anesthesiologist with special training in pain management, applied to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in 2013, and Garden Remedies was among the first group of applicants to earn provisional approval in 2014.
The dispensary received its special permit from the City Council later that same year, despite some objections to the dispensary’s proximity to Cabot’s Ice Cream, and concerns about traffic and marijuana’s federal criminal status.
The state has endured some criticism for its slow handling of medical marijuana dispensary applications, but Munkacy had only praise for the regulators she worked with over the past three years.
“They are just very concerned it’s done right,” Munkacy said.
Garden Remedies sees patients by appointment, and only dispenses to Massachusetts residents who have registered with the state and already obtained a prescription for the drug from their physician.
The dispensary grows its own product at a cultivation facility in Fitchburg that Munkacy said cost $400,000 to outfit. Munkacy said her team had developed proprietary methods of extracting marijuana for use in vape pens without toxic additives.
“Because we’re all about doing what’s best for our patients, and I would not want to sell anything that could be harmful to the patient,” she said, adding that her marijuana is grown organically.
The opening of the first dispensary here comes just one week after Massachusetts voters legalized the use of recreational marijuana. Recreational pot shops are expected to open in 2018, and existing medical dispensaries are being given special treatment in that permitting process.
But Munkacy, who is applying to open another medical dispensary in Somerville’s Davis Square, wouldn’t say whether she was interested in eventually selling marijuana for recreational use.
“I’ve been working about 90 hours a week on getting our medical facility up and running and doing this right,” Munkacy said. “So right now we don’t have a position on that issue. That’s a separate issue.”
Garden Remedies is located at 697 Washington St., just outside downtown Newtonville.
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Full Article: Medical Marijuana Shop Opens In Newtonville
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Website: Wicked Local Newton