N.J. medical-marijuana provider seeks to open dispensary location in DeWitt

DeWITT, N.Y. — Empire State Compassionate Care (ESCC) plans to open a dispensary location for medical marijuana at 3057 Erie Blvd. East in DeWitt, should it get approval to do so.

Friday was the deadline for those interested in providing medical marijuana to submit documents to the New York State Department of Health.

The state Health Department will choose five organizations this summer, its website says.

The Erie Boulevard site is one of four locations that ESCC plans open once New York’s medical-marijuana program begins operating later this year, according to a news release it issued on Friday.

New York’s medical-marijuana program should be operational by Jan. 5, 2016, or 18 months from the day Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the legislation, according to the state’s website for the program.

The other ESCC locations would be in Cheektowaga (Buffalo suburb), Hempstead (Long Island), and Manhattan.

Empire State Compassionate Care plans to locate its manufacturing facility in New Windsor in Orange County. Once at full capacity, that site will employ about 150 people, it said.

David and Michael Weissner, the principals of the Garden State Dispensary (GSD), the largest medical-marijuana distributor in New Jersey, own and operate Empire State Compassionate Care.

GSD is a nonprofit that produces and dispenses nearly 70 percent of the medical marijuana in New Jersey’s pharmaceutical-grade medical model, and is among the “leading” producers in Colorado.

“As we have already done for over 25,000 patients in New Jersey and Colorado, we are eager to help people across New York get the treatment they need to manage these debilitating illnesses,” David Weisser, president of ESCC, said in the news release. “We’re excited to put in an application with locked-in dispensary and manufacturing locations.”

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com