With medicinal marijuana licenses in hand, New York dispensaries are finally gearing up to sell cannabis legally beginning Thursday. Columbia Care arguably has one the buzziest dispensary locations in New York City’s Union Square neighborhood. The state in July granted five medicinal marijuana licenses.
Nicholas Vita, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, runs Columbia Care. He’s gearing up to open his shop on 14th Street. Business neighbors include a CityMD office and a Chickpea restaurant. “Almost every subway line in the city touches Union Square, which makes the location incredibly accessible,” said Vita, Columbia Care’s chief executive.
The city’s first medical marijuana dispensary opens Thursday in Union Square, allowing qualified patients a new treatment for symptoms of medical conditions such as cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.
Columbia Care’s street-level facility at 212 East 14th St., will take patients in on an appointment-only basis. The 1,800 square foot office was designed to make patients feel at ease and safe when they pick up their prescription, according to Nicholas Vita, Columbia Care’s CEO. “We wanted to make sure there is a community feel,” he said. “This is a very personal decision to make.”
The state legalized medicinal marijuana in 2014. And set a strict set of rules for how it is dispensed. Patients must suffer from a select list of ailments, including cancer, HIV infection or AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease or MS.
The Union Square office will be staffed by a pharmacist, a pharmacy technician, security guard and receptionist includes a system where a patient’s ID card is scanned before they can enter the office. The waiting area was designed to be cozy and welcoming, according to the staff, with white walls, posters that display facts the office’s services and a TV that presents other information regarding the medical marijuana law.
“If someone has stomach cancer and they are trying to alleviate symptoms, we can use what we’ve learned from our other stations to help them,” he said.
Columbia Care didn’t divulge how many patients have appointments during its opening day but Vita said he doesn’t expect crowds around the block. The center plans on adding more staff members in the future, depending on the demand, according to a spokeswoman.
“This is a medication. This is a serious opportunity to treat patients who haven’t necessarily found the treatment they need,” said Nicholas Vita, CEO of Columbia Care, the Manhattan dispensary’s operator. New York’s program “is going to be a game-changer for the industry … because nobody’s going to let anything slip through the cracks.”
New York is the only state besides Minnesota to limit medical marijuana to non-smokable extracts delivered in forms such as capsules, vaporizers and liquids taken orally, and it’s one of few states with a physician training requirement. New York limited its program to 20 dispensaries and a short list of qualified conditions such as cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.
“We’re not going to be selling joints. We’re not going to be selling pot brownies,” said CEO Ari Hoffnung, who argues New York’s strictures can make some patients more comfortable with medical pot.
In many cases, he said, “grandmothers don’t want to walk into a dispensary and be told by a 27-year-old bud tender that they should buy an AK-47 joint.”
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