Waiting game for marijuana dispensary

South Jersey's second medical-marijuana dispensary, expected to open in a renovated 18,000-square-foot building in Bellmawr, Camden County, received its final construction approvals from the borough in late December.

But the Compassionate Sciences Alternative Treatment Center still needs the green light from the state Department of Health before it can begin growing marijuana on the premises.

The background check of the dispensary's principals and funding sources - which began in February 2013 - is continuing and is expected to be completed by the end of June, according to the department. After that, additional state inspections of the cultivation area and testing of the cannabis that is harvested could push the opening back to the fall or later.

Donna Leusner, a department spokeswoman, declined to comment on the timetable.

"We look forward to opening as soon as possible," said Andrei Bogolubov, spokesman for the Compassionate Sciences Foundation. "And it cannot happen soon enough. . . . We're very excited about opening our doors." He declined to comment on when he thought that might happen.

In an interview last year, Bogolubov said he had expected the dispensary to open last summer. The number of employees has not been determined.

South Jersey's first dispensary, operated by the Compassionate Care Foundation, opened in October 2013 in a former casino warehouse in Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic County. It has served about 1,000 patients.

The state legalized medical marijuana in 2010 but has been plagued by delays in implementation. Statewide so far, three dispensaries have opened, and three others are planned. More than 3,700 patients who suffer from one or more of about a dozen ailments have registered to buy cannabis.

Situated in an industrial park, the Compassionate Sciences Alternative Treatment Center building is on Coolidge Avenue in the shadow of a $900 million federally funded construction project that will connect I-295, I-76, and Route 42. Nearby is a massive, closed landfill the borough plans to remediate and eventually develop a part of into a retail and housing project.

During a visit to the Bellmawr facility last week, general manager Larry Lodi was making preparations. "We are fully ready to operate," he said in a brief conversation outside the freshly painted white building with a royal-blue stripe and blue-and-white logo.

"We'll be able to handle a couple thousand patients a year after we are operating," Lodi said of the dispensary.

Lodi previously worked at dispensaries in Connecticut and Rhode Island. According to the Compassionate Sciences' website, he has been a grower and helped design a 165,000-square-foot cultivation facility in Connecticut. In Rhode Island, he helped patients and caregivers design small, private grow rooms.

Before he became involved in the cannabis industry, Lodi was a stock and off-the-floor trader on the New York Stock Exchange. Before that, he managed the Golf Channel's Amateur Golf tour in New York, the largest amateur tour in the United States.

Gretchen McCarthy, who managed an alternative treatment center in Maine, will be the dispensary director.

Among the strains that may be sold are Blue Dream, Willy Jack, Purple Kush Starship, and Golden Goat, according to the website. The public can fill out information requests through the website to be alerted when the dispensary opens.

The chairman of Compassionate Science's board of trustees is William Statter, a pharmacist and businessman in North Jersey. He founded Rumson Pharmacy and is a director of Community Partners Bancorp and Two River Community Bank.

Michael Nelson, who owned and operated dispensaries in Montana, is the foundation's senior consultant. He has sold the dispensaries to focus his efforts on the dispensary in Bellmawr, according to Bogolubov. Nelson has experience in building alternative treatment centers and in overseeing a grow operation.

The Bellmawr facility was created by renovating a shuttered T-shirt factory.

"The old building was an eyesore," said Jim Burleigh, Bellmawr's code official. "They pretty much rehabbed the entire building and redid the roof, and installed upgraded electrical and air-conditioning systems. They also have a state-of-the-art fire sprinkler system and 24-hour video surveillance."

In recent weeks, Burleigh said, the owners have been doing mostly cosmetic things, like painting, inside the building. "Now they're just waiting for state approvals," he said.