Compassionate Sciences to Produce New Jersey’s First and Only Manufactured Medical Marijuana Products

On Sep 2, 2016

Compassionate Sciences Alternative Treatment Center in Belmawr, NJ announced today that it became the first New Jersey medical marijuana dispensary to receive final state approval to manufacture new medical cannabis products for registered patients. The announcement comes less than one year after Compassionate Sciences opened the state’s fourth dispensary in October 2015.

“Since opening our doors nearly a year ago, Compassionate Sciences has been dedicated to providing our patients with the highest standard of care, which is why we have invested so heavily in the technology to manufacture these new products,” said Webster B. Todd, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Compassionate Sciences. “We want to thank the state Department of Health for giving us this opportunity to better serve our patients, and we will continue exploring innovative new ways to provide pharmaceutical-grade quality care in the future.”

The pharmaceutical-grade products are made with cannabis extracts and include two topical forms and one oral form. The topical products will be available to patients within a week, while lozenges are scheduled to be available within a month. The new offerings expand on the company’s already-diverse selection of more than a dozen medical cannabis strains available to patients.

“These products, which have been formulated to meet the state’s high standards of quality, represent a huge step forward for New Jersey’s medical marijuana program that will move it into a new phase of innovation that will benefit thousands of patients,” said Dr. Steven Patierno, a member of the medical board of advisors for PalliaTech Inc., which operates the dispensary, cultivation and manufacturing units for Compassionate Sciences. “For children and elderly patients, in particular, topical and oral forms of medical cannabis are a crucially needed alternative to inhaled medicines, which can be difficult to administer to those patients.”

“This is a monumental day for so many patients throughout New Jersey who are suffering from debilitating conditions and who have been waiting for years for badly needed alternative forms of medical cannabis treatment,” said Peter Rosenfeld of the Coalition of Medical Marijuana, New Jersey, a patient advocacy group. “Compassionate Sciences has been ahead of the curve since Day One, and we look forward to working with its team to ensure patients throughout the state can learn about and access these new products.”

About The New Products

Formulated by the PalliaTech team, new manufactured medical cannabis products are developed and purified at the company’s high-tech cultivation and laboratory facility in Bellmawr using a highly sophisticated cannabinoid extraction method that produces pure, clean oil and removes plant material to increase purity and quality. (Cannabinoids are the active pain-relieving compounds found in cannabis.) The products are tested to ensure each dose has a standardized amount of cannabinoids.

Topical cannabis can provide fast-acting, long-lasting and localized relief to patients without the psychoactive effects of other cannabis medicines. With topical application, cannabinoids react directly with receptors in the skin and do not produce the psychotropic effects experienced with inhalation or ingestion of medical cannabis.

Lozenges are soft tablets designed to slowly dissolve in the patients’ mouth and will be available to patients in a variety of flavors.

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