The first medical marijuana dispensary on the East Coast is about to supply patients from a farmhouse in rural Aroostook County.

Two other state-licensed dispensaries, in Ellsworth and Auburn, are close behind and may start selling the drug in the next several weeks.

Maine’s southernmost dispensaries, in Portland and Biddeford, aren’t expected to open until May or June because of a combination of siting and financing delays. And already, a northern competitor is taking advantage of the head start and offering free marijuana deliveries in southern Maine.

The opening of Maine’s dispensaries — the first east of Colorado — comes 16 months after voters approved a network of dispensaries to expand access to marijuana for patients with a limited number of medical conditions, such as cancer and glaucoma. Registered patients can still grow their own or have a caregiver grow marijuana for them.

Five operators have been working to set up eight dispensaries, one in each of Maine’s public health districts.

The dispensaries in Portland, Bangor, Thomaston and the Augusta area will be operated by Northeast Patients Group, an offshoot of Berkeley Patients Group, one of the largest and best-known dispensaries in California.

Although the West Coast connection appeared to give Northeast an edge over its competition in Maine, the first operator out of the gate will be Leo Trudel, a business professor from the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

Trudel, owner of Safe Alternatives, was the first to set up a high-security cultivation site — a converted barn in Frenchville. Safe Alternatives does not yet have a storefront for its dispensary, but Trudel has grown and processed enough marijuana to start making deliveries to registered patients.

“He has product,” said John Thiele, coordinator of the Maine Medical Marijuana Program. “His deliveries could begin within the next 14 days.”

Trudel could not be reached for this story. He has said that his business will be based largely on deliveries because of the vast, rural market he will serve in far northern Maine.

Close behind is Maine Organic Therapy, which plans to start delivering marijuana to patients later this month.

Maine Organic plans to open a dispensary in Ellsworth on May 1. It has been growing its marijuana in Biddeford and plans to be the first dispensary to supply the southern Maine market, said CEO Derek Brock.

Maine Organic is offering free delivery anywhere from Ellsworth to Biddeford, Brock said, and has been advertising in The Portland Press Herald in recent weeks offering “high quality, organic marijuana” and providing a toll-free telephone number.

“There’s an advantage to being first,” Brock said. “You can get a lot of the first patients and they can designate you.”

Patients must designate where they will get their marijuana and can have only one source at a time, although they are allowed to switch suppliers. Patients can buy from any registered dispensary or caregiver in the state.

There could be a disadvantage in being first into the market, Brock said. “We might get an embarrassment of riches,” he said.

The state’s rules limit dispensaries to six 12-inch, flowering and harvestable female plants per patient. It takes about two months to grow a plant to that stage, so a rush of patients could outstrip supplies.

“You need patients to grow medicine, but you need medicine to grow patients,” Brock said.

He expects to charge about $300 to $325 per ounce. Nearly 20 patients have formally designated Maine Organic Therapy as their dispensary, and the number is expected to grow now that the business is about to start delivering, he said.

“It’s taken everybody all their strength, wit and charm to actually get these going,” Brock said. “It’s so new that everybody’s had problems.”

The ads in Portland have not escaped the attention of Rebecca DeKeuster, CEO of Northeast Patients Group. The group plans to open one of its dispensaries in downtown Portland. DeKeuster said she had hoped to be operating by now, but isn’t overly worried about being second into the local market.

“I’m happy that patients will be able to access medicine and I’m also confident that when we open … we will provide superior services,” she said.

Northeast is working to operate dispensaries in Portland, Bangor, Thomaston and the Augusta area, and has contended with siting concerns and rules in each community. It also has had difficulty finding a place to grow marijuana.

Northeast is still negotiating for potential cultivation sites, including two in Portland, said Catherine Cobb, director of the licensing bureau in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Northeast Patients Group was forced to find new financial backing in recent weeks. Its start-up loan was supposed to come from the Berkeley Patients Group in California, but Berkeley was told in February that it must pay a $6.4 million tax bill on past sales of marijuana.

California’s state taxation board ruled that the company owes the taxes based on sales from 2004 to 2007. The state declared in 2007 that medical marijuana is not a tax-exempt prescription drug, and Berkeley has paid sales taxes since then.

DeKeuster would not comment on the tax issue or its impact on Northeast. She said Northeast has a new financial backer, but would not say who it is.

“We had to take a slightly different approach,” she said.

DeKeuster said the group has not yet chosen a dispensary site in Portland, and hopes to open its first dispensaries in May or June. “This has taken longer than any of us suspected,” she said. “It’s a brand-new thing.”

Southern Maine’s other dispensary is expected to open in Biddeford by May 1, said Glenn Peterson, CEO of Canuvo Inc. The dispensary recently changed its name from Safe Harbor.

Peterson said he has purchased the site for the dispensary — a medical condominium off Route 111, near Southern Maine Medical Center. But he is running into delays with a planned cultivation site in Gray, where the Town Council has enacted a temporary moratorium. Peterson said he still hopes to establish the facility in Gray in time to open for business by May.

He’s not worried about Maine Organic Therapy delivering to patients in York County in the meantime.

“The patients have the ability to switch” dispensaries, he said. “We’ll be delivering locally for folks who can’t make it to the dispensary.”

So far, the state has registered more than 700 Mainers as medical marijuana patients. Nearly all of those patients are now growing their own marijuana or buying from registered caregivers, each of whom can legally supply as many as five patients.

With dispensaries about to open, some patients are starting to switch to them, and more are sending in applications, said Thiele, the state coordinator.

“We’ll hit 1,000 (patients) within a month.” And, Thiele said, “I think we’ll probably have double the amount of applications at this time next year.”

Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324 or at: jrichardson@pressherald.com

 

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