Medical marijuana dispensary opens in State College

Steven Carroll is a recovering heroin addict with chronic pain and nerve damage. Since he got his medical marijuana card in April, he'd been making the two-hour drive to a dispensary in Pittsburgh from his home in Tyrone every two weeks.

But on Thursday, his drive was a lot shorter as the long-awaited dispensary in Patton Township, the county's first, opened.

"It keeps me away from the stuff I don't need to be around — opiates, things like that. … I can't 'cause I'm too afraid I'll go back to that former lifestyle. … I would rather have something like this: It's all-natural; it doesn't hurt me," Carroll said.

He continued: "This has actually changed my life. It saved me from being a heroin addict."

Carroll and his best friend of 20 years, Ryan Bowman — who has nerve pain from scoliosis and is also a recovering addict — were among dozens of medical marijuana patients who visited Nature's Medicines, located at 2105 N. Atherton St., on its first day in business.

General manager Angel Rodriguez said a parking lot full of patients were waiting an hour before the facility opened its doors Thursday morning.

"They've been waiting a long time for this, and I'm happy we're here to be able to give this to them," said Rodriguez, who's also a medical marijuana patient.

The store will be open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday, though he said those hours might expand as he's able to hire more employees.

When patients arrive, they provide their ID and patient card, get registered in the system, speak to a pharmacist about their doctors' recommendations and then go into the dispensary and meet with patient service providers who take care of their needs and educate them on the products, Rodriguez said, which vary from oils and waxes to pills.

Christy Billett, founder and executive director of Pennsylvanians for Safe Access, stopped by Nature's Medicines Thursday to get information about the dispensary for patients.

Pennsylvanians for Safe Access was one of the advocacy groups that helped write the state's medical marijuana law, which passed in April 2016. The law allows people with "serious medical conditions," such as cancer, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, to apply for a medical marijuana card.

"It's totally a dream come true. We have fought so hard to get to where we are today, and the fact that just to be able to help people get to a better quality of life is really just the best thing you can hope for," she said.

This story was originally published June 21, 2018 at 1:55 PM with the headline "Medical marijuana dispensary opens in State College."