The Hummel Report: Greenleaf Compassion Center

If you drive along West Main Road in Portsmouth there’s a good chance you might miss it.

But later this month, a nondescript, converted auto body shop will become Rhode Island’s newest dispensary for patients authorized to purchase medical marijuana.

The Greenleaf Compassion Center becomes the second of three authorized by the Rhode Island Department of Health in what has been a stop-and-go process over the past several years.

Dr. Seth Bock is a Middletown acupuncturist and partner in Greenleaf, which beat out more than a dozen other applicants and will be the sole compassion center in the East Bay. The other two are in Warwick and Providence.

Bock and his partners are putting a total of $600,000 into the venture, and expect to eventually serve several hundred patients after it opens May 31. Given the product is being sold and grown at the Greenleaf building, the owners are investing heavily in security. A bulletproof glass foyer will eventually greet customers when they are buzzed in after showing identification.

“We take security very, very seriously,” Bock tells The Hummel Report. “From my perspective, aside from providing the best medicine we can to people that need it, security is right up there with it.”

The original plan called for the center to be located on the back side of the Portsmouth Business Park, sandwiched in between a row of businesses. But Bock said the landlord got cold feet and there were odor concerns since marijuana will be cultivated on site. The new location is more visible and close to a bus stop.

But not everyone is happy about pot for pain.

Larry Fitzmorris, who heads a local citizens watchdog group, says the state totally bypassed the community in the application and citing approval process. “This was a local decision that the state made,” he said.

Bock insists that Greenleaf has worked with local officials, including the building inspector and the police and fire chiefs. “We follow all of the same in-town regulatory requirements as any other business here. It just so happens that we met those requirements. We met with the building inspector and zoning officer and he went through the normal process. Not every business needs to get a zoning variance.”

“I think maybe some people feel like it should have gone to the whole town for  a referendum. But at the end of the day, I think it would have passed by a large majority. It’s very clear that for medical marijuana specifically, 83 percent of people in the country believe it should be available to people that need it.”

Fitzmorris disagrees: “If, in my judgment, it had been placed before the people for a vote here, it would have failed. We would have launched a rather substantial opposition to it.”

Bock, who has a master’s degree in Chinese herbal medicine, says he feels strongly about the use of medicinal marijuana.

“I watched two of my aunts die of cancer – they had cancer for long periods of time,” he said. “And I watched them use this medicine. It kept them alive for a long time because they were able to complete their chemotherapy regimens. I think some people have the feeling that the entire topic of medical marijuana being a medicine is a sham. And that it’s all about us just making a lot of money and getting it to whoever wants it regardless of health parameters.”

Then there’s the issue of the Federal Government. In the past, US Attorney Peter Neronha has warned large-scale growers about potential prosecution. A spokesman declined our request for a comment about the compassion centers.

We asked if Bock had concerns about the Federal Government.

“You know, I definitely have concerns about it,” he said. “I’m a dad, I’m a husband, I’m a community member, I’m a family member. Most of the time I’m a pretty good person. I’m in this for the right reason. I’ve worked with people that are desperate and have benefitted from this. It’s a program built on compassion; I have every intention of following that mission. This is not legalization for the masses. We’re not putting this medicine into the hands of children, it’s not going into the black market. From every logical standpoint, this model is the best model probably in the country.”

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