City Pot Dispensary Receives State Approval, Awaits Zoning Commission

It’s not quite a done deal, but the State Department of Consumer Protection announced Thursday 2181 Main Street in the North End has been selected as one of six dispensary locations authorized under the state’s Medical Marijuana Program. The city’s Zoning Commission is currently weighing an application by Karen Barski and Angela D’Amico of D&B Wellness.

Karen Barski
Karen Barski, a nurse and medical inventor with a Bridgeport-based business, is proposing a marijuana dispensary clinic. From webpage.

Mayor Bill Finch’s spokesman Brett Broesder issued this statement:

“We thank the Department of Consumer Protection for their hard work on thoroughly vetting these six dispensaries, including one in Bridgeport. However, we understand that the community is concerned and has a lot of questions, which is why D&B Wellness is currently being vetted by the community through the city’s Zoning Commission. The Commission will make a final determination on what is best for the Park City through this inclusive process.”

News release from Consumer Protection:

Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner William M. Rubenstein announced today the names and locations of the first six dispensary facilities that will be authorized by the state’s Medical Marijuana Program. These are the facilities that may legally dispense Connecticut-produced marijuana products to seriously ill patients who have been certified by their physicians as potentially benefiting from the use of medical marijuana, and who have registered with the state’s Medical Marijuana Program.

“With the selection of dispensary facilities, all necessary pieces of the medical marijuana program are in place and we are poised to provide patients with a safe and secure source of needed medicine,” Commissioner Rubenstein said. “As retail points from which products are dispensed and educational materials are provided to patients, the dispensary facilities will be the public face of Connecticut’s medical marijuana program, and therefore, careful thought and deliberation went into selection of the most qualified applicants.”

Like the four producers that were awarded licenses in January, the six dispensary facilities were chosen through a competitive process, from 27 applicants that responded to a Request for Applications in November 2013. Each applicant was required to provide detailed information, including the applicant’s qualifications and experience, a business plan identifying the products and services it will offer, security features, and plans to provide benefits to the local community.

The selected dispensary facilities will be eligible to receive their licenses upon payment of the $5,000 license fee and submission of certain final documentation, which must occur within 30 days. The facilities will then begin construction, as needed, hire and train staff, and develop educational programs and materials. All are expected to be ready to open and serve patients by the time marijuana products are available from licensed producers sometime this summer.

Today’s announcement is another milestone in the implementation of Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 420f, which provides for the palliative use of marijuana for patients suffering from one of 11 specific debilitating illnesses, whose doctors believe that such treatment is appropriate.

Connecticut’s is the first state medical marijuana program based on the pharmaceutical/ medical model–from physician certification, to production facilities operating as pharmaceutical manufacturers, to dispensing to patients by licensed pharmacists.

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41 comments

  1. Just wonderful, it’s too bad these Trumbull women could not put this place in Trumbull. With this pot bullshit everybody with an ass-ache will be lined up to buy pot.
    Please don’t tell me about the cancer patients and glaucoma patients, I believe they should have access to the drug but it should be dispensed at the local hospitals. No one else should be able to get this stuff but cancer patients, glaucoma patients and special surgery cases.
    I can’t wait to see the line of sick, lame and lazy at the local pot store. What a circus.

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    1. Fairfield said no, Trumbull said no and so, how perfect! Bridgeport. How wonderful it is to have no leadership on development, zoning or quality of life issues. The mayor can travel wherever and raise however much money he wants but his lack of concern, leadership on development, taxes and schools in the city will ultimately come back and bite him. Just one bad decision after another.

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      1. The state didn’t just say “yes” to Bridgeport. It said yes to all other municipalities nearby. This won’t stop residents of Trumbull and Fairfield or any town from getting a prescription and a permit; buying from the dispensary and paying the tax. Then to the loophole that allows them to go to the Black Market in any Town, City or State for a refill. Read about the loophole below.

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  2. What is the line on how long it will be until this stuff hits the streets? All this so Malloy’s kid can legally smoke pot. Another banner day for BPT and all CT’s urban areas. If this doesn’t give the Dems enough money to spend we can always legalize prostitution. Only for medical purposes. Like the relief of random swelling. I know a place in Black Rock.

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  3. Attention all medicinal pot user and permit carriers. There are two thing you must do to buy marijuana legally and not worry about getting pinched for possession. First, a doctor must give a prescription after diagnosing one of the medical conditions allowed by law. Then you have to get the permit and pay $25.

    Now you are ready for your trip to the dispensary to buy your marijuana. The first thing you’re going to experience before the high is sticker shock. You will be paying top dollar and taxed for your weed. You will notice it’s a small quantity for so much money. Not to worry. This law was passed by a bunch of morons who always fail to see the loopholes in laws they pass.

    Here is the loophole that will allow you to possess and buy marijuana on the street tax-free and possess it legally. The burden of proof is always on the state. If you have a prescription for marijuana and you are discovered to be in possession of marijuana, there is nothing a law enforcement officer can do when you show him the prescription. After smoking your first purchase at the dispensary, you can buy the same quality and type of marijuana on the Black Market. Put and store the black market marijuana in the packaging or container of the prescribed marijuana. How is the law enforcement officer supposed to be able to tell the difference between the marijuana from the Black Market and the one from the dispensary? How is the doctor supposed to know which of them you smoked? Always keep your marijuana in its container or packaging with prescription label on it. If you have a quarter-ounce prescription, don’t be a moron like the lawmakers and make sure you don’t have over a quarter-ounce. I’ve never seen a police officer with a scale as a tool or police-issued equipment. They use and weigh confiscated drugs at police headquarters as this has been the protocol for years. If you are ever arrested and charged with carrying more than the prescribed amount of marijuana, make sure the weighing wasn’t done with the container or packaging as that adds or raises the weight as you will be charged with an offense and lose your weed. Most people charged with small offenses tend to just plead guilty as the cost of legal representation is expensive. Having a conviction can be even more expensive and there is always the possibility of getting a public defender. Loopholes–the other balance of justice and the American way.

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      1. Lots of experience. I’m an ex-drug dealer. Born and raised in neighborhoods where all sorts of drugs and vice has been sort of the norm. Now state, local, appointed & elected officials, and selected private citizens are drug dealers. Keep in mind the sale, manufacturing, and distribution of marijuana is illegal under federal law. If cigarettes were banned, I’d be the last to object. It’d make quitting easier for me. flubadud sounds like a good name to stamp on a bag of anything. 🙂

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        1. Joel–as a self-proclaimed former drug dealer, you must know better than most the risks involved for the buyer. Buying from an unscrupulous person poses a danger that just doesn’t exist when buying marijuana for medicinal purposes with a prescription. Street weed can be laced with who knows what, the buyer can be robbed, ripped off or physically injured, perhaps even murdered. Besides, when someone is as ill or debilitated as let’s say a cancer patient, how apt are they to go out in the streets looking for a drug dealer?

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    1. That story is nonsense. If someone is diagnosed with mental illness they have a disability. They would be eligible for welfare insurance. If they have that insurance they are not eligible for Obamacare. Obamacare is not designed to help disabled people in any way. They have insurance, SSDI and such. It is designed to provide low-cost (not) insurance to working poor and the underemployed who do not already have insurance.
      Obamacare has good and bad points. Bad points: too expensive, the insurance sucks, no one wants it. (10% of the population was eligible but only 5.7% signed up. I guess the other 4.3% opted to pay the fine), no one takes it, it is a taxpayer nightmare.
      Good points: the CT premiums are among the highest and this will encourage these people to move somewhere else.

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    1. I read an article about this in Colorado. They were selling munchies, like crazy, at the dispensaries. The state shut it right down … the munchies, I mean!

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  4. This is a freaking joke. Medical marijuana? This just gave every asshole in the world permission to legally smoke pot. The doctors will be so busy writing prescriptions they will not be able to see patients. The idiots at the state level who passed this law don’t know you can buy pot on the street cheaper than what they are going to sell it for at this dispensary.
    Just once can that idiot we call a mayor stand up and say not in my city? I have very little doubt many in this administration will be in line at the pot store, after all you can’t get as dumb as they are without medicinal help.
    A message to the two women from Trumbull and their lawyer, SCREW ALL OF YOU!!!

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    1. Come on Andy, don’t be dissing the docs. Right now today a doc can write you a prescription for all kinds of things, for example, oxycontin, a very popular street drug. But they aren’t going to risk losing their medical license. They know how to handle drug seekers. In fact I’d bet the people who’d be looking for a marijuana prescription are the same ones they’ve already seen looking for other drugs.

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      1. You are right but now people are on what is known as maintenance programs that in many cases use the drugs you describe. They may know how to handle drug seekers but there are doctors who will write a scrip for any drug. The sick, lame and lazy have been getting pot scrips wherever pot was made easy to get and it will happen here unfortunately.

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  5. I am in favor of medical use of marijuana for very specific and serious medical conditions. If set up properly, limiting types of doctors that can prescribe it, controlling where it is obtained, it can be a good thing.
    However, right now the way it is set up every recreational user will be lining up for a prescription. I can see it now, “hey doc, I have a hangnail; can you write me a prescription for some marijuana. It will make me feel better.”
    This is going to be a joke.
    Look at California. They have people walking up and down the beach wearing sandwich boards advertising only a 10-minute wait to get your medical marijuana card.
    Welcome to Bridgeport.

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    1. I would think the doctor, unless he or she is a damn fool willing to jeopardize their license, would have to have substantial medical documentation of the patient’s ailment before frivolously writing a prescription for medical marijuana.

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  6. I totally support medicinal marijuana. All of the outrage baffles me. This is by prescription from a doctor. It’s not like going to CVS and buying any over-the-counter drug. Going to the paint store and inhaling glue or paint fumes. Get over it. There are people who need the benefits of medicinal marijuana and other natural homeopathic remedies readily available at Nature’s Way and other health-conscious venues. Better we worry about idiots walking around with guns like rednecks protecting their sheep. I haven’t smoked a joint in 40 years. I do remember it was fun, recreational, safe, with friends, laughing at Saturday Night Live and eating like it was the last supper. I do not remember anyone I know becoming violent or suicidal. Driving cars totally inebriated killing innocent bystanders. So why would anyone want to deprive anyone of something to help deal with an illness? Just plain ignorant. Sorry but just plain ignorant. Honestly, just plain ignorant. There are plenty of problems to address in this world … medicinal marijuana just isn’t one of them. Bridgeport, Trumbull, Greenwich. What’s the difference?

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    1. Steve, do you believe there are no doctors out there who will write pot prescriptions for hangnails? They are doing it now with certain drugs and they hide it by calling it a maintenance program.

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    2. Steve–there is no convincing anyone who has made their mind up to oppose it, no matter how glaringly obvious the facts are, they just refuse to recognize the benefits of medical marijuana. Many years ago, women who used herbal remedies were burned at the stake having been accused of witchcraft. Yet the same herbs they utilized for treatment are freely sold over the counter today and holistic medicine has become a viable practice that attracts more and more patients every day.

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  7. Steve, you really live in a world of make-believe, don’t you. Do you really believe these two ladies from Trumbull and whoever their financial backers are want this so it’s available to cancer patients and glaucoma sufferers only? Every asshole with a backache or an ass ache will see some doctor who will write them a script for pot.
    The pothead will buy his first batch at the pot store and from then on it’s from the corner dealer. Do you know why that is Steve? Because the corner dealer will sell pot at a cheaper price.
    You say Bridgeport, Trumbull, Greenwich, what’s the difference? The difference is again it’s in Bridgeport, not in the other towns you mention.

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    1. Andy, I am more concerned about an unscrupulous one-in-a-million doctor writing a prescription for barbiturates and amphetamines. I do not believe any doctor will put their career on the line to write prescriptions for a friend. Andy, your thought process is just archaic. I commend Ayala for his vote since you mentioned him.

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      1. Steve, my thought process is archaic, I admit. I am still one of those who believe in rules and laws. I am also one of those who know one of the biggest killers in the US is prescription drugs. This is a pill society and who writes the scripts? Doctors. You see Steve, people of your liberal bent will be the first ones crying when this pot thing gets out of hand.
        Steve, to your other post, yes I am tired of every freaking piece of shit project parking their ass in Bridgeport. Maybe you like being overrun with halfway houses, drug rehabs and the like. I don’t. While you’re at it Steve, why not support recreational crack cocaine use?

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      2. I commend anyone who voted for it as well. People need to educate themselves on the benefits of medical marijuana before they condemn it. Prescription painkiller abuse is rampant, it is highly addictive, not to mention the risk of overdose. Marijuana is not addictive and the risk of overdose is non-existent. Unless you want to say overindulging in Ben & Jerry’s is a health risk.

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    2. Andy, let’s face it. Bridgeport is definitely the most obvious place. We are a city with doctors and hospitals. We are a central location. STOP CRYING LIKE THE SKY IS FALLING. IT IS NOT! If I were the Mayor, Senator, Governor or Congress I would support it! I would also support recreational marijuana and if that is the end game from these two woman from Trumbull then they have a long-range business plan. Good for them.

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  8. I just had opportunity to read this blog and weigh in on it. I don’t understand all the negativity. I’ll share a story with you I personally witnessed. A friend of mine from California was stricken with breast cancer that had metastasized to one lung and I believe three lymph nodes. After a double mastectomy and removal of the nodes and part of her lung, the oncologists began an aggressive course of chemotherapy. Within a matter of months, the treatment ravaged her and she couldn’t hold down any food. Her weight dropped drastically. She was then prescribed medical marijuana. Miraculously, she regained her appetite and gained back over 30 lbs. and is actually able to get out and about on her own. She feels and looks so much better, it’s simply amazing. So for all the people who are convinced medical marijuana is a farce, I for one, can attest that it isn’t. It was a blessing for my friend. I’m convinced, as is her family, she’d be dead by now had she not been treated with it.

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    1. Godiva2011, there has been nothing you’ve posted on OIB I liked or agreed with, but I must say I agree with you and thanks for sharing that story.

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  9. I favor medical marijuana. What I don’t favor is the wholesaling of medical prescriptions for pot. Anyone on this blog who does not believe that will happen lives in a dream world. BTW here are some interesting facts on pot put out by the National Drug Council:
    Health Consequences
    • Marijuana smoke contains 50 percent to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke. Using marijuana may promote cancer of the respiratory tract and disrupt the immune system.
    • Marijuana smokers have a heightened risk of lung infection.
    • Long-term use of marijuana may increase the risk of chronic cough, bronchitis, and emphysema, as well as cancer of the head, neck, and lungs.
    • Mentions of marijuana use in emergency room visits have risen 176 percent since 1994, surpassing those of heroin.
    • In 2001, marijuana was a contributing factor in more than 110,000 emergency department visits in the United States.
    • Marijuana can cause the heart rate, normally 70 to 80 beats per minute, to increase by 20 to 50 beats per minute or, in some cases, even to double.
    • In a 2003 study, researchers in England found that smoking marijuana for even less than six years causes a marked
    deterioration in lung function. The study suggests that marijuana use may rob the body of antioxidants that protect
    cells against damage that can lead to heart disease and cancer.
    • Marijuana affects alertness, concentration, perception, coordination, and reaction time—skills that are necessary for safe driving. A roadside study of reckless drivers in Tennessee found that 33 percent of all subjects who were not under the influence of alcohol and who were tested for drugs at the scene of their arrest tested positive for marijuana. In a 2003 Canadian study, one in five students admitted to driving within an hour of using marijuana. Marijuana is a much bigger part of the problem than most people realize.
    • Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in America. Of the nearly 20 million current illicit drug users, 14.6 million (about 75 percent) are using marijuana.
    • Of the 7.1 million Americans suffering from illegal drug dependence or abuse, 60 percent abuse or are dependent
    on marijuana.
    • Of all youth age 12-17 in drug treatment in 2000, nearly 62 percent had a primary marijuana diagnosis. Approximately
    half were referred to treatment through the criminal justice system and half through other sources, including self-referral.
    • The average age of initiation for marijuana use generally has been getting younger.

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  10. Gee after my post I expected comments from Godiva and Steve but I guess they can’t argue against facts.
    I will say for the 100th time I support medical marijuana. What the lawmakers should have done is limit which doctors can write a pot script such as an oncologist, neurologist etc.
    General Practice and Family Doctors should not be allowed to write these scripts.
    Steve and Godiva, in the real world doctors will write a prescription for a ham sandwich.

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