MA: Construction Starts On Fall River Medical Marijuana Dispensary

Ron Strider

Well-Known Member
Construction will start this month on the city's first medical marijuana dispensary.

It could be up and running as early as April, according to Dr. Henry Crowley, president of CannaTech Medicinals.

CannaTech Medicinals is building a 50,000-square-foot growing and processing facility in the biopark, right next to the UMass Medical School MassBiologics facility.

The shell of the processing facility is up and sealed in. Workers, Thursday, were digging trenches inside the building to run plumbing and electric lines in the ground, under what will become the building's concrete floor.

Workers will also be on Hartwell Street, in a vacant lot behind Walgreens, to begin work on the CannaTech dispensary.

"We'll start construction on that in the next few weeks," Crowley said. "Our contractor, John Ferreira, is really good. It should go quickly."

Work will continue in the biopark, too.

"We are trying to have product out the door in April. We will supply the product for Hartwell Street."

By then, the company should have 25 people working for them with others hired by companies that contract with CannaTech to provide services.

"We are in agreement that we will hire veterans and that hiring will have a strong local flavor," Crowley said. "We want to stay local. We are very grateful to the city of Fall River for the support we've gotten."

CannaTech Medicinals holds one of the state's licenses to grow, process and distribute marijuana products. The entire company is owned by a corporation that was formed when CannaTech joined in a partnership with Canadian Bioceuticals CNN, a company with experience in growing and processing marijuana and in selling branded marijuana products.

The Canadian company also has research ties to companies in Israel and the Netherlands, where federal regulations allow bigger and better research projects using marijuana as medicine. Federal laws in the United States limit research into the use of medical marijuana.

"The wisdom they bring to us, having done this before, is wisdom we don't have," Crowley said.

That is especially important as the marijuana market matures and develops brand names for its products – lozenges, vapors, cooking oils, topical ointments, suppositories, skin patches.

With those products, the power and effect of the marijuana has to be predictable and consistent. That requires a pharmaceutical grade product, Crowley said.

Voters passed a referendum in 2012, legalizing the use of marijuana as medicine in the state. Five years later the first dispensaries are opening.

A referendum question a year ago passed, allowing the recreational use of marijuana. State leaders have yet to craft the rules and regulations for that market.

CannaTech is established as a medical marijuana company, Dr. Crowley said. He is a medical doctor, specializing in anesthesia and pain management.

"Research will be a big part of our model," he said. "That is why we are in the biopark.

"If adult usage is approved, what do we do with that? If that is the case, we would be in position to offer high quality pharma grade marijuana products."

He noted that in states that have active recreational marijuana markets, a lot of people who have medical cards and marijuana prescriptions opt to buy products through the recreational market.

"Our focus will be to produce medicine from marijuana," Crowley said. "That is the business we are in."

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Full Article: Construction starts on Fall River medical marijuana dispensary - News - The Herald News, Fall River, MA - Fall River, MA
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