COLLEGE TOWNSHIP — The township has been “inundated” with calls from prospective operators of medical marijuana facilities and has issued one business registration for a potential dispensary, according to Zoning Officer Mark Gabrovsek.
That registration — formally known as a zoning verification of use — does not mean that the dispensary will become a reality. It means that the potential business meets zoning requirements for that commercial location, Gabrovsek recently told the township council.
Gabrovsek declined comment on the name or location of the entity that got a zoning certification from the township, saying it was too early in the process to know whether the applicant will receive a state permit.
“We have received numerous inquiries about locations for dispensaries,” Gabrovsek told the council. “There is a likelihood that when all is said and done there very well may be one, possibly more, somewhere within the township.”
Gabrovsek told the Gazette he had fielded “a minimum of 20 calls, probably many more than that” from people inquiring about locating a dispensary in the township.
While he had not heard from officials in other communities, he said he expected that there was great interest throughout the Centre Region.
The state Department of Health will issue a limited number of permits for dispensaries and for grower processors. Applications closed on March 20.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf in April 2016 signed into law a measure legalizing medical marijuana. The state Department of Health began accepting applications for grower/processors and dispensaries Feb. 20, with a goal of having the program fully implemented next year.
The state is broken into six regions for the purpose of issuing medical marijuana permits. Centre County is in the Northcentral Region, which will receive two dispensary permits and two grower/processor permits.
The entity that secured a lease and a business registration for a location in the township did so in an effort to strengthen its application with the state in what is expected to be a highly competitive process, Gabrovsek said.
Township Manager Adam Brumbaugh said his understanding is that municipalities have little say in the matter as long as the applicants meet the same zoning and land use requirements as other commercial (dispensaries) or industrial (growers/processors) facilities in the same districts.
“The township’s hands are somewhat tied in terms of regulating these operations,” Brumbaugh said.
Dispensaries would be treated like other businesses conducting retail sales, Gabrovsek said.
MEDICAL CONDITIONS COVERED
The following conditions are covered under the state act legalizing medical marijuana, according to the Department of Health:
■ Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
■ Autism
■ Cancer
■ Crohn’s disease
■ Damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity
■ Epilepsy
■ Glaucoma
■ HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) / AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
■ Huntington’s disease
■ Inflammatory bowel disease
■ Intractable seizures
■ Multiple sclerosis
■ Neuropathies
■ Parkinson’s disease
■ Post-traumatic stress disorder
■ Severe chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe chronic or intractable pain in which conventional therapeutic intervention and opiate therapy is contraindicated or ineffective
■ Sickle cell anemia
To participate in the medical marijuana program, patients must register with the department; obtain a physician’s certification that they suffer from one of the 17 serious medical conditions, as defined in the act; apply for a medical marijuana ID card and submit the application fee; and obtain medical marijuana from an approved Pennsylvania dispensary.
According to the Department of Health, the act:
- provides for funding for research institutions to study the use of medical marijuana to treat other serious conditions;
- establishes an advisory committee that will review these research findings and make recommendations to the legislature;
- provides revenue to the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs for drug abuse prevention, counseling and treatment services, as well as to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for distribution to local police departments.
The bill imposes a 5 percent tax on the gross receipts that a grower/processor gets from the sale of medical marijuana to another grower or processor or a dispensary. The sales are exempt from the state sales tax.
