Saturday, March 30, 2019
Expect facility to look much like doctor’s office, general manager says
Staff report
WARREN
The first medical marijuana dispensary in Mahoning and Trumbull counties will open Friday when gLeaf Medical Cannabis begins operations at 2932 Youngstown Road.
A.J. Caraballo, pharmacist and general manager of the facility, said he and his staff are “excited to finally get patients” after making it through the state certification process and renovations to their building, which is across from the Trumbull County Board of Elections.
“This is something I truly believe in and will provide relief to a lot of patients,” Caraballo said Friday.
He said his goal is to “provide the legitimacy this treatment deserves.”
He will be providing a tour to the news media early the first morning of operation, but he said to expect it to look much like a doctor’s office.
After the patient enters the main door, he or she will present their medical marijuana identification card and a second form of identification.
The receptionist will verify that the patient is eligible. Then the patient enters the waiting room where a “patient advocate” – one of the facility’s pharmacy technicians – will bring them into the dispensary area. That’s where Caraballo will talk to each patient about their medical conditions and which of the hundreds of types of medical marijuana will work best.
“We’re trying to give the best patient experience you can get in the area,” he said. The other closest dispensaries are in East Liverpool and Canton, he said.
The facility’s hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
The following are medical conditions that qualify a person for medical marijuana use: AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease), Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Crohn’s disease, chronic and severe pain, epilepsy or another seizure disorder, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, hepatitis C, inflammatory bowel disease, Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, HIV positive, post-traumatic stress disorder, sickle-cell anemia, spinal cord disease or injury, Tourette syndrome, traumatic brain injury or ulcerative colitis.
To get a medical marijuana card, an appointment has to be scheduled with a doctor certified to recommend marijuana so they can confirm the medical condition and then submit a new-patient application to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy. The card comes in the mail.