Biggest Medical Marijuana Dispensary Aims for Wider Public Acceptance
In Oakland, the biggest medical marijuana dispensary center has opened, and its owner wants it to become a model for other cannabis distribution outlets in Maine that will soon follow.
Steve DeAngelo created the Harborside Health Center and is the first of its kind that gives people a look at cannabis and trigger re-evaluation of how the society sees the said substance. The store is the first model dispensary for the eight expected centers which will operate in the Maine area. With these dispensaries being opened, patients around Portland, Bangor, Augusta, and five other communities will have access to medical marijuana which will put the drug in plain view and finally out of the shadows.
“I think having dispensaries helps legitimize (medical marijuana). It breaks down some of the psychological barriers around this issue,” said Jonathan Leavitt, director of the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative. “It’s already the number one cash crop in the state. It might as well be out in the open.”
In Maine, full-scale legalization of medical marijuana is a long-term plan. Advocates of the program say that their main objective is to bring the drug to those who are suffering from serious illnesses and prioritize those who need them to alleviate their pain. Problems happen, though, when dispensaries lack the proper information and the state fails to formulate regulations which make these distribution centers prone to cases of abuse and crime.
DeAngelo has both been criticized and praised for opening his facility. He stays focused then on increasing the acceptance of marijuana as a medicine. It’s safe and an extremely potent drug, he says. As more and more people are exposed to cannabis, it won’t be long before it becomes legally recognized nationwide. In time, his bigger goal of having a center that will be accepted in the heartland of America would be achieved.
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