By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
UPPER FREEHOLD Breakwater Alternative Treatment Center has filed an application with the Upper Freehold Zoning Board of Adjustment to grow medicinal marijuana in two greenhouses it proposes to build on a Rues Road farm.
Breakwater is one of six nonprofit entities selected by the state to operate alternative treatment centers (ATC) for the state’s medicinal marijuana program, which is aimed at providing pain relief for patients with debilitating medical conditions that do not respond to conventional medical therapy.
The farms where the cannabis will be grown, and the treatment centers where it will be dispensed, do not necessarily have to be in the same location. According to the permit application that Breakwater’s chief operating officer H. Alexander Zaleski filed Oct. 20 with zoning officials, Breakwater intends to dispense the marijuana at a separate still-to-be-determined location, not the Rues Road cultivation facilities.
A message left at Breakwater’s offices on Monday was not immediately returned before The Messenger-Press went to print.
The application states that Breakwater is interested in putting its medicinal marijuana operation at 86 Rues Road inside two proposed greenhouses totaling 14,760 square feet and a proposed 5,600-square-foot farm building. The estimated cost is $2 million, according to the application.
Former Township Committeeman George Rue is the current owner of the two lots being eyed for the project: a 79-acre property (Block 15, Lot 17.02), which has been permanently preserved for agricultural use, and a 13.3-acre parcel (Block 15, Lot 41.04).
Mr. Rue’s personal attorney, Granville M. Magee, confirmed Monday his client had been contacted about selling the land, but said he was unaware that Breakwater had filed a zoning permit application already with the township.
”My understanding was that the potential buyer was looking at a number of properties,” Mr. Magee said. The other sites were also in Upper Freehold, he said.
Mr. Magee, who is also the Upper Freehold township attorney, said he has previously advised the Township Committee that it would be a conflict for him to advise the township on the matter and that the governing body would need to obtain separate counsel should the project move forward.
”I’ve represented George Rue in a number of matters since he retired as a township committeeman,” Mr. Magee said. “So anything that might have to do with one of Mr. Rue’s properties is something I can’t be a part of and I have already advised the Township Committee of that.”
The zoning application, which has not yet been acted upon, proposes two “gutter-connected greenhouses” measuring 48-by-30 feet and 132-by-30 feet; and a 56-by100-foot farm building that would be used for “trimming, drying, packaging, curing, processing and the storing of medical cannabis grown in the production facilities.” An office is also proposed for inside the farm building.
The 22-foot high greenhouses and the 28-foot high farm building would occupy less than 4 percent of Lot 41.04 and less than 1 percent of Lot 17.02, the application states.
Although the application is technically under the purview of zoning board, not the Township Committee, a local physician who opposes the project plans to use tonight’s (Nov. 17) Township Committee meeting to argue against it.
Dr. Curtis Byrnes, of Allentown Family Medicine on Walnford Road, said he opposes the project because of security concerns. Municipal Clerk Dana Tyler confirmed that Dr. Byrnes had requested time to address the committee on the issue.
The state’s proposed regulations for the medical marijuana program require the six selected ATCs to receive all their local municipal approvals for cultivation and dispensary sites before applying for a permit from the state. The ATCs must also, among other things, pass a criminal background check, demonstrate they have sufficient security at the site, and have a business plan and inventory control to ensure that abuses that have occurred in other states don’t happen in New Jersey.
”The state won’t issue permits until all requirements are met,” said Donna Leusener, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health and Senior Services, on Monday. “No permits have been issued at this point” for any cultivation or dispensary sites in New Jersey, she said.
Some of the six state-approved ATCs have suffered local setbacks since they began searching for locations to grow and dispense marijuana. Last month, the Maple Shade zoning board rejected an application from Compassionate Sciences Inc. to dispense medical marijuana from a former office furniture store on Route 73.
New Jersey’s medicinal marijuana program is for registered patients with debilitating medical conditions, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), multiple sclerosis, terminal cancer, muscular dystrophy, or inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s disease. A terminal illness also qualifies for the program if the physician determines the patient has less than 12 months to live.
The following conditions qualify if they are resistant to conventional medical therapy: seizure disorder, including epilepsy; intractable skeletal muscular spasticity; or glaucoma.
