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May 1, 2019

Medical marijuana dispensary opens in Meriden

PHOTO | Joe Cooper Willow Brook Wellness is now open for business and selling medical marijuana in Meriden.
By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo

Area residents who use medical marijuana have a new choice for a dispensary in northern New Haven County.

Willow Brook Wellness, LLC began selling products out of 1371 East Main St., Meriden on Monday, April 29.

The facility offers various marijuana-related products, including tablets, capsules, sprays, tinctures, cookies and honey, according to its website. It shares space in a plaza with a credit union, nail salon, beauty salon, visiting nurses and an Asian restaurant.

Mary Morgan, dispensary manager and pharmacist, said the community has been very welcoming.

“The response has been wonderful from the patients and the other businesses in the area,” Morgan said. “We are just excited to be open and serving these patients and providing medicine and help to people who need it.”

Morgan, who has worked in pharmacies for three decades, has been assisting patients through the state’s Medical Marijuana Program since it began in 2014.

According to Morgan, the location in Meriden is ideal, as there had been no dispensaries nearby, and it is convenient to highways. Willow Brook Wellness is easily accessed from I-91, I-691 and Route 15.

“[Neighboring] Middlesex County has no dispensary, so there seemed to be a gap in coverage here,” Morgan said. “People were going a long way for their medicine. Here, we are at the top of New Haven County, but we are convenient to Middlesex County also.”

The business currently employs three pharmacists and six pharmacy technicians.

“As we get more patients, we will definitely expand with more staff,” Morgan said.

The Meriden facility is one of two opening in New Haven County this spring. The pair are among nine new facilities that obtained licenses late last year from the state Department of Consumer Protection. Once these all open, there will be 18 around the state. As of Wednesday, there were 11 dispensaries in Connecticut listed on the department’s website. The others are in Hartford, Milford, Branford, Waterbury, Bethel, Mansfield, South Windsor, Uncasville and Bristol.

The state expects the remainder of the newly licensed facilities to be open by this summer at the latest, according to Lora Rae Anderson, a department spokeswoman.

Affinity Health & Wellness Inc., at 1351 Whalley Ave. in New Haven, is slated to open in the middle of May. It will be the city’s first medical marijuana dispensary, and it will employ about eight people to start, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and clerical staff.

The state’s Medical Marijuana Program had grown significantly in recent years. The number of patients using the program was at 8,228 in 2016, and as of this week, this had grown to 33,929 patients, according to Anderson.

In Connecticut, medical marijuana is approved for use to treat 31 medical conditions, such as cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, cerebral palsy, arthritis and terminal illness.

The Meriden dispensary is open daily, except for Sundays. For more information, visit Willow Brook’s website at www.willowbrookwellness.com.

Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com

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