HIGH HOPES
DELCO’S SECOND MEDICAL-MARIJUANA DISPENSARY OPENS IN UPLAND
UPLAND » Delaware County welcomed a new cannabis dispensary to the community Friday. Verilife opened its new dispensary in the Upland Shopping Center.
Verilife-Chester joins AES Herbology Dispensary in Morton, which opened the first medical marijuana dispensary in Delaware County in May 2019.
Squeezed between the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant and G &G Pizza, the new dispensary hopes to see 100 customers a day, seven days a week.
As of August, there were some
366,146 patients and 1,968 physicians that had registered with the state according to previous reporting in the Daily Times.
Residents must have a serious medical condition, as certified by an approved physician, in order to register for a State ID card and use that card to obtain the medical marijuana.
Pennsylvania recognizes 23 qualifying conditions such as chronic pain, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder to qualify for the card, which costs
$50. There are about 1,500 doctors in the state of Pennsylvania who are able to provide the necessary certifications for patients to receive the card. A list of approved practioners is available on the state Department of Health website.
Verilife is a subsidy of PharmaCann Inc., based in Chicago. According to a press release, it is one of the nation’s largest privately held cannabis companies with operations in six states - New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. It holds licenses to operate up to five cultivation centers and 26 dispensaries.
“With this opening in the community, we are really excited,” said Renee Straup, outreach representative for Verilife. “Whenever we go into a community, regardless of the state we’re in, we really focus on building the relationships in the community.”
Straup said Verilife works with health care providers in the area who review patients’ medical conditions, their past prescriptions, and then to certify them for a card.
Straup said Verilife hopes to offer workshops to members of the community, in such locations as opioid recovery centers and chronic pain physician offices, to assist them.
Company officials expect to hire up to 25 full-time workers with most employees being local residents.
General Manager Brittany Moyer said many of the new employees have seen people affected and who have benefited from medical marijuana program.
“We’ve hired staff with all different background and local to Chester and this area,” said Moyer. “They have personal relationships with a lot of our patients as well, and have been able to recommend and also just guide them to get their cards and get ready.”
Asked about the variety of products and brands offered, Straup said all marijuana is not the same.
“They are plants. It’s just like if you see a rose - it smells and looks a certain way, but then you see a carnation and it’s still
a flower. It looks and smells very similar but it’s not the same. The strains [of cannabis] are very similar to that,” she said.
Straup said there are 25 marijuana cultivators in the state and each produce a unique strain of the plant accounting for the variety.
One is Agri-Kind, an offshoot of Agronomed Pharmaceuticals in Exton, which has a 48,000 square-foot growing facility on the 100 block of Broomall Street in Chester.
“Depending on what condition people are coming in for, that’s where our on-site pharmacists come in handy. They can do consults with our patients,” Straup
said. “We really go through the percentages of the cannabinoids, recommending things that are right for that person.”
Struap said when PharmaCann was licensed to grow marijuana in Pennsylvania, they had 30 days to bring seeds into the state and begin operations there. They have a cultivation site under development in Olyphant, near their other dispensary in Shamokin, Pa. They hope to have products from there beginning in 2021.
“With the addition of our new Chester dispensary location, we are pleased to expand more broadly into Pennsylvania and help patients meet their medical cannabis needs,” said Brett Novey, CEO of PharmaCann in the press release. “We look forward to being an active member of the Chester community, providing high-quality products and service to ensure patients have access to the most effective options for improving their lives through cannabis.”
Among those in attendance for the ribbon-cutting, which was delayed one day by Thursday’s snowstorm, was Nate Seaman, vice president of Springhill Realty Inc., which owns the Upland Center Shopping Center.
“Anytime we get to fill a vacant space in retail, it’s huge,” said Seaman. “By the sounds of it, there will be traffic and anytime we get cross traffic between tenants it’s appealing. We hope that carries over to existing tenants.”
Seaman noted the center is now at 100 percent occupancy. Since some businesses have seen patterns change to take-out only during the pandemic, he said they have been working with their businesses to help them succeed.
“If you don’t work together, things soon fail,” said Seaman. “We’re happy for everybody here and do anything we can to keep everybody here and successful.”
Straup said she could see a future where more widespread legalization of marijuana, such as what Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has been supporting, would be an opportunity to help more patients.
Verilife Chester is located in the Upland Center, 875 Upland Ave., and is open every day from 9 a.m.– 7 p.m. For safety, a security guard is on location and a security system in use 24 hours a day.