John Greene wants to open a medical marijuana dispensary to help people with serious illness avoid the suffering he watched his father endure in the weeks before he died from cancer.
The 32-year-old Plymouth resident who runs a wholesale herbal extract company there, said his father was diagnosed last October with liver, lung and stomach cancer. He starved to death just weeks after his first chemotherapy treatment, Greene said.
"(My family) knew we could stimulate his appetite if he had medical marijuana available to him," Greene said. "That ultimately would have extended his life."
Instead his father was given high doses of morphine, Greene said, which made him completely uncommunicative for the last weeks of his life.
Greene has submitted applications to open dispensaries in Plymouth and Bristol counties and hopes to locate his Plymouth County dispensary in Brockton.
As the only city in the county, Brockton is the logical choice, Greene said, and its hospitals and transportation will help ensure patient access.
He said the cultivation and manufacturing operation to supply his two potential dispensaries would likely be located in Plymouth.
Greene's company, Adaptonic, makes herbal tinctures and extracts that promote good health. The company sells products like Liver Forever, which treats congested livers and gets rid of toxins. It is made from milk thistle, schizandra berry and olive leaf.
He said his experience as an herbalist would inform his approach to operating a dispensary.
"We're not opening up a business to get people high. We're opening up a business to heal people," he said.
Greene said the focus would be to provide strains of marijuana with high medicinal value and less THC, the chemical compound responsible for marijuana's psychoactive effects.
The clinic he envisions would also provide nutritional consulting, other therapies and other herbal medicines, he said.
"These won't look like head shops," he said. "We want our facility to have the look and feel of a wellness center."
There will be no glass jars of marijuana on display for customers to ogle. Instead, Greene said he pictures a clean, comfortable environment for patients, much like an "upscale spa."
Getting into the medical marijuana industry is expensive, he said.
With the help of friends and family, Greene created the Greeneway Wellness Foundation to operate his planned marijuana and healing business.
Greene estimates opening the doors on one of his dispensaries will cost between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.
John Greene wants to open a medical marijuana dispensary to help people with serious illness avoid the suffering he watched his father endure in the weeks before he died from cancer.
The 32-year-old Plymouth resident who runs a wholesale herbal extract company there, said his father was diagnosed last October with liver, lung and stomach cancer. He starved to death just weeks after his first chemotherapy treatment, Greene said.
"(My family) knew we could stimulate his appetite if he had medical marijuana available to him," Greene said. "That ultimately would have extended his life."
Instead his father was given high doses of morphine, Greene said, which made him completely uncommunicative for the last weeks of his life.
Greene has submitted applications to open dispensaries in Plymouth and Bristol counties and hopes to locate his Plymouth County dispensary in Brockton.
As the only city in the county, Brockton is the logical choice, Greene said, and its hospitals and transportation will help ensure patient access.
He said the cultivation and manufacturing operation to supply his two potential dispensaries would likely be located in Plymouth.
Greene's company, Adaptonic, makes herbal tinctures and extracts that promote good health. The company sells products like Liver Forever, which treats congested livers and gets rid of toxins. It is made from milk thistle, schizandra berry and olive leaf.
He said his experience as an herbalist would inform his approach to operating a dispensary.
"We're not opening up a business to get people high. We're opening up a business to heal people," he said.
Greene said the focus would be to provide strains of marijuana with high medicinal value and less THC, the chemical compound responsible for marijuana's psychoactive effects.
The clinic he envisions would also provide nutritional consulting, other therapies and other herbal medicines, he said.
"These won't look like head shops," he said. "We want our facility to have the look and feel of a wellness center."
There will be no glass jars of marijuana on display for customers to ogle. Instead, Greene said he pictures a clean, comfortable environment for patients, much like an "upscale spa."
Getting into the medical marijuana industry is expensive, he said.
With the help of friends and family, Greene created the Greeneway Wellness Foundation to operate his planned marijuana and healing business.
Greene estimates opening the doors on one of his dispensaries will cost between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.
The application process alone costs up to $500,000. Then there are property leases, lobbying fees, lawyer fees, permit fees and building and architectural costs, he said.
State law requires marijuana businesses be not-for-profit, but because he's dealing in a federally controlled substance, Greene said he can't file as a 501(c)3 – the tax-exempt designation for a nonprofit group with the IRS. As a result, he said marijuana businesses will pay up to 35 percent of their revenue in federal taxes, he said.
But Greene said a recent memo from the Department of Justice declaring it will not challenge the new marijuana laws in Washington state and Colorado – that allow for its sale and recreational use – makes him optimistic that the federal government might change its stance on the tax status of marijuana nonprofit groups.
Greene said Brockton residents should not be concerned about a dispensary coming to the city. Far from having a negative impact on its neighbors, he said he believes a dispensary can be a boon for the community.
"There's been numerous studies showing these dispensaries actually decrease crime because of the presence of more security and surveillance equipment," he said.
Morgan True may be reached at mtrue@enterprisenews.com follow him on twitter @truemorgan_ENT.
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