The Phillipsburg Planning Board approved plans for a proposed marijuana dispensary Thursday. The dispensary may open on South Main Street by year's end.
The Apothecarium, owned by TerrAscend Corp. of Toronto, will occupy the vacant Phillipsburg Trust Company building at 55 S. Main St. Only New Jersey residents with prescriptions from state-approved physicians will be able to buy marijuana products there. The marijuana will be grown in Boonton, Morris County.
TerrAscend's Evan Kolakowski said New Jersey allows patients with chronic pain, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder and other serious conditions to use marijuana for treatment. Only patients with a New Jersey medical-marijuana card will be served. If a patient were to take their purchase into Pennsylvania, they would break federal law when they crossed the state line, he said.
Credit card companies will not handle marijuana transactions, so the Main Street dispensary will deal in cash, Jerry DeLorenzo, director of operations for TerrAscend, said. The cash will be kept in a safe within a vault and every night after closing, marijuana products will also be stored in a vault.