Propossed Compassion Center in Providence RI..Has this been Posted Here Before?

I am NOT the original poster of this Article.Just passing it on.If its been posted please let me know ill have it removed.


Store in Providence would grow, package and sell medical marijuana


07:05 AM EDT on Monday, June 28, 2010


By W. Zachary Malinowski

Journal Staff Writer

Gerald McGraw Jr., a principal in the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center, in the large vault where marijuana for medical use would be stored before sale to licensed patients. The proposed Providence site was most recently Capitol Records Center, a storage facility.
The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. â?? The old warehouse complex in the Valley neighborhood has been many things to many people over the past 150 years. It was once home to the James Hanley Brewing Co., and Harry Houdini, the renowned escape artist, paid a visit and successfully broke free from a locked beer cask.
In recent years, the fortress-like site has served as the Capitol Records Center, a storage facility for reams of archived state documents.
Now, the two vacant buildings at 431 Harris Ave. may soon take on a new historic significance: A group of investors is contending to turn it into the stateâ??s first medical marijuana store. They would name it the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center, after the late Providence state representative who championed the legalization of medical marijuana, to grow and applicants interested in operating a compassion center in Rhode Island under rules developed by the Department of Health. There are applications for other centers in Providence as well as for marijuana retail sites in Pawtucket, Portsmouth, the Warwick/Cranston area and northern Rhode Island. Several applicants have yet to secure an exact location while one did not respond to a request seeking a tour of its proposed facility. Another declined the offer, while Slater officials agreed to meet with a Journal reporter and photographer.
On Tuesday, the Health Department, which solicited the compassion center proposals, has scheduled a hearing in the Cannon Building, 3 Capitol Hill, Room 104, for the public to air its concerns or support for the various proposals.
The hearing begins at 10 a.m. Key issues are expected to be the location and the proposed security measures for the centers.
Gerald McGraw Jr. in one of the cavernous rooms where marijuana would be grown for medical use and sold to patients who are licensed by the state to use cannabis.
The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

The Health Department plans to select up to three applicants by Aug. 1.
If the Slater Compassion Center is chosen, Gerald J. McGraw Jr., the investor groupâ??s president, and Chris Reilly, the groupâ??s spokesman, said that, by November, they can transform the 75,000-square-foot center into a thriving all-service marijuana outlet.
â??We will be a good corporate citizen, and we will contribute jobs to the economy,â?� Reilly said.
McGraw said that the center would train and hire up to 75 employees for security, cultivation, storage, sales and a variety of other services that the center would offer such as yoga, Reiki and hypnotherapy.
Only licensed medical marijuana users, who must be at least 18 years old, would be allowed on the grounds, and they would be the only ones who could take advantage of the other programs.
A business plan filed with the Health Department, part of the application process for all prospective operators, projects that the Slater Centerâ??s revenues will top $510,000 this year, and that those numbers are expected to grow nearly sixfold to $2.9 million by 2012.
Plans for the Slater Center are modeled after the Harborside Health Center, a well-established medical marijuana business in northern California with 46,000 registered patients and offices in Oakland and San Jose. McGraw has hired Harborsideâ??s parent company, CannBe, and several of its top officials to help his team launch the marijuana center in Rhode Island.
Medical marijuana has become a big business in the West. There are more than 200,000 licensed medical marijuana users in California and more than 80,000 in Colorado. Since last fall, the number of dispensaries selling marijuana in Colorado has surged from 70 to more than 1,100.
McGraw, right, and Thomas Underhill, security chief, in the proposed Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center.

Both states also have imposed a sales tax on the drug. Rhode Island, one of only six states that have approved medical marijuana dispensaries, along with the District of Columbia, has yet to consider such a proposal for the 1,800 patients registered under the burgeoning program.
About 25 new patients a month are getting medical marijuana licenses from the Health Department to deal with medical conditions that have been reviewed by physicians. Rhode Island has had a medical marijuana program since 2006.
Thomas M. Underhill, a retired state police lieutenant and a vice president at APG Security in Cranston, would be in charge of a sophisticated security system at the Slater Center.
Licensed patients would enter the grounds of the center by passing through a security gate on Harris Avenue. Once inside, valet service would be available for the infirm, and the patients would go to a 4,000-square-foot. satellite building that would serve as the compassion center. There, customers would be able to buy various strains of marijuana at prices ranging from $25 to $51 for an eighth of an ounce.
An ounce would cost anywhere from $450 to $550.
Under state law, a patient cannot be sold more than 2.5 ounces of marijuana during a 15-day period.
Among the possible strains that would be grown and sold at the Slater Center are Strawberry Cough, New York City Diesel, Chem Dawg and Mr. Nice. The various strains are designed to provide relief for a variety of maladies including chronic pain, muscle spasms, nausea, mood disorders and anxiety.
The center may sell up to 25 different strains in the on-site store that would feature glass and wood cases similar to those a customer might find at a jewelry store. Slater officials said that state law prohibits customers from smoking the marijuana on the grounds of a compassion center.
The larger, adjacent warehouse is where the marijuana would be grown, packaged and stored. McGraw, the centerâ??s president, said the product in the store would be moved to the warehouse each night.
The compassion center would be open for business 7 days a week from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The warehouse would be the primary hub of activity. On the second floor, there are two expansive rooms that would be used to grow the marijuana. It is unclear how many customers the Slater Center would serve, but McGraw is hoping for about 600 to start.
The more customers that choose to buy marijuana from a center, the more marijuana its operators would be allowed to grow. As of last week, there were 1,790 licensed patients in the stateâ??s medical marijuana program. They may now get their marijuana only from among the stateâ??s more than 1,300 licensed individual growers.
Once the first compassion center opens, licensed patients would have the option of going there or continuing to deal with individual growers.
McGraw, who runs J&J Electric, in Warwick, said that he has a purchase and sale agreement in hand to buy the warehouse complex, provided that the state grants his group a license to open.
KEY POINTSMarijuana across the U.S.
States with operating medical marijuana dispensaries: California, Colorado, New Mexico.

States that have approved the opening of dispensaries: Rhode Island, Maine and New Jersey, and the District of Columbia.
KEY POINTSMarijuana across the U.S.
States with operating medical marijuana dispensaries: California, Colorado, New Mexico.

States that have approved the opening of dispensaries: Rhode Island, Maine and New Jersey, and the District of Columbia.
[email protected]
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$450 to $550 an ounce?
So much for "non-profit"!

they must be the ones on drugs, compassion my a**

That's what I mean they charge crazy amounts and think people can afford this.It also said that we could choose to buy from the compassion center or deal with individual growers.Who should buy from them IF they could get quality meds for even 300.This seemed pretty interesting to me. Figured ied share it.

Highflyer,

Good to see ya! Glad the garden is coming along so nicely, there is time for extracurricular reading. :smokin:

This is a pretty puffy piece, kind of free advertising. Shows how RI is all about who you know. The prices seem standard to dispensary models out west--no one is going to be in business and undercut street prices. Especially when there is little incentive other than patients' needs.

For everyone who wants to do something about the kind of compassion centers we get in RI, I suggest two things.

First, find the RI ASA thread and get involved. Without voice, the market cannot change.

Second, go to this website.

In the middle of the page, you can view all of the current compassion center applications in .pdf form. Take notes and identify the ones that you feel would do the best for our community. Contact them and give them your support and feedback, as APPROPRIATE. Do not antagonize those with whom you disagree. It would be disrespectful, damage our public information system, and not change the prices anyhow.

Finally, with info in hand go to the February 7th at 10:00AM. I will be there to give voice for myself and my community. If you don't speak up, why would anybody making money change the game?

"Free yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds."

CD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wkpjr1967

$450 to $550 an ounce?
So much for "non-profit"!

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Lets all remember that a NON-Profit is simply a business status that falls under certain criteria. This is not the laymens definition incorporated into legislation. This is all governed by UCC (Uniformed Commercial Codes) as is all things in business and most things in life.


non-profit organization





Definition
An incorporated organization which exists for educational or charitable reasons, and from which its shareholders or trustees do not benefit financially. Any money earned must be retained by the organization, and used for its own expenses, operations, and programs. Many non-profit organizations also seek tax exempt status, and may also be exempt from local taxes including sales taxes or property taxes. Well-known non-profit organizations include Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross, and United Way. also called not-for-profit organization.
"Any money earned must be retained by the organization, and used for its own expenses, operations, and programs" - This means that the business can earn as much as it's greedy fingers can, keep all monies inhouse and annually adjust all employees salaries under operations cost no matter if it is 300,000$ or 3 million. As long as it is used within the year and all other criteria are met the NON-PROFIT can continue to make the "employee" and in most cases the president is a founding member and an employee who may then dictate what all expenses are and increase pay when necessary...Not completely sure but I have worked for a lot of NON-Profits and for my own sanity had to understand how managers where driving brand new cars every year and living in 300,000 dollar houses.....Sorry about the rant everyone!

I am going to now medicate!

Cant wait to see how patients really react to what the cost will be for meds. IF they choose to ONLY deal with these COMPASSION CENTERS outrages PRICES, who will be able to afford it?And with that amount of space they can grow a lot of low cost meds IF they wanted to.

I was growing in RI before it was medically legal and will continue to do so if these compassion centers come to be. Well, not IF but WHEN.

I refuse to pay $450-$500/ounce when I can grow it myself.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DirtyApe

I was growing in RI before it was medically legal and will continue to do so if these compassion centers come to be. Well, not IF but WHEN.

I refuse to pay $450-$500/ounce when I can grow it myself.

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Its crazy to see these Prices when its clear they COULD produce lots of low cost meds.BUT, there will be other Centers that SAY they will offer meds at lower cost.Closer to 200-300 an OZ

Hi, I'm new here. I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all, but is this "Strain pricing tracker" not valid? It seemed as if it kept up with the price as sold in the compassion centers around the country...?...???

http://legalmarijuanadispensary.com/...&view=exchange