NEW: Governor Baker Approves Sale of Medical Marijuana in MA
Friday, June 19, 2015
GoLocalWorcester News Team
On Friday morning, Charlie Baker announced the approval of a one-time, temporary waiver to allow the first medical marijuana dispensary to sell its product.
“Patients have waited to access marijuana for medical purposes for far too long,”said Governor Baker. “This waiver will allow industry laboratories a little more time to reach full operation while providing safe amounts of medical marijuana for qualifying patients who need it.”
Alternative Therapy Group (ATG) of Salem requested the waiver and met the final inspection records required by the Department of Public Health.
ATG's first batch of medical marijuana was unable to test for 11 of the mandated pesticides. Thanks to the waiver granted by Baker, marijuana for medical use can be distributed with a label that discloses to the consumer the chemicals that were not tested.
“We are not lowering our standards for the testing of marijuana for medical purposes. Safety is job one,” said Marylou Sudders, Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. “The waiver allows for small amounts of marijuana to be dispensed for medical use while testing facilities ramp up.”
The waiver allows a three month period for ATG to dispense only a maximum of 4.23 ounces of marijuana to qualifty patients for a 60-day supply.
“We carefully considered the initial testing results and we will review the standards going forward,” said Dr. Monica Bharel, Commissioner of the Department of Public Health. “We believe these levels provide for patient health protections while allowing the first dispensary to distribute marijuana for medical use as voted on in 2012.”