Medical Marijuana Coming To Upper Whalley

New Haven will soon get its first medical marijuana dispensary and it’s coming to upper Whalley Avenue

The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection announced Tuesday afternoon the names and addresses of nine new dispensaries for which it has issued licenses. One of those new dispensary licenses is for 1351 Whalley Ave. in the former Tommy K’s plaza.

The dispensary will operate as Affinity Health & Wellness Inc., according to the state.

The Whalley Avenue location is the former home of a 7‑Eleven convenience store and in striking distance of Crossroads Inc. rehab center on East Ramsdell St.

It is not, however, the location that the city might have anticipated. Glen Greenberg, the owner of the popular downtown cigar and lounge The Owl Shop, had hopes of opening a medical marijuana dispensary not too far away from Whalley Avenue on Amity Road. He received site plan approval from the City Plan Commission to build a dispensary at a site across the street. That plan was contingent upon his obtaining a license from the state. (Read more about that here.)

But for now, the state has chosen a different person and location to operate in New Haven. That operator will be pharmacist Ray Pantelena the owner of the former Peoples Pharmacy on Chapel Street. (Reached Tuesday night, Pantelena confirmed receiving a license and said he was having dinner and could not chat right then.)

The state’s medical marijuana program issued a request for applications (RFA) at the beginning of 2018 with an eye toward granting between three and 10 new facility licenses. It was a competitive process, according to the department which received 73 applications in response to the RFA.

The medical marijuana program has experienced exponential growth since the state’s first facility licenses were awarded nearly three years ago. There were just 8,228 patients in the program then; today 30,448, according to a press release provided by the department.

“This program has been thoughtfully expanded since the bill was signed in 2012, and medication became available to patients in 2014,” said Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle H. Seagull in the press release. ​“Originally, there were only 11 conditions that would qualify adults for medication, and there were very few patients. Today, there are 31 conditions for adults, eight for patients under 18, and over 1,000 certifying practitioners. This medication has improved the quality of life for tens of thousands of patients. We look forward to working with our partners as the program continues to expand.”

The newly licensed dispensaries have to pay their license fee and submit their final documentation in the next 14 days, according to the press release. Once that’s done they can open.

Prior to this recent approval, there were nine dispensaries in the state including in Milford and Branford. But none in New Haven. This new crop brings the total number of approved locations in the state to 18.

New Haven County is second to Hartford County for the most medical marijuana patients in the state. Of the more than 26,000 registered medical marijuana patients 6,089 of them reside in New Haven County, according to the department.