Baiting Hollow grower seeks to become one of New York’s five authorized medical marijuana producers

A Baiting Hollow grower is looking to become one of the five registered organizations authorized to produce and dispense medical marijuana in New York State pursuant to the Compassionate Care Act signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last July.

Ivy Acres, a wholesale grower founded in 1962, is seeking approval to grow marijuana and manufacture the extract and pill form allowed by state regulations to be dispensed to physicians and patients in New York, company founder Jack Van de Wetering said in an interview this afternoon.

The company has partnered with THC Health Inc., a company whose principals have pharmaceutical industry experience, working with companies such as Merck and Pfizer, said Kurt Van de Wetering, Jack’s son and vice president of operations for Ivy Acres’ New Jersey and Pennsylvania facilities.

Kurt Van de Wetering has spearheaded the company’s effort to become a registered organization under the N.Y. medical marijuana program.

“I’ve seen firsthand people who are suffering from diseases who can benefit from the administration of medical marijuana,” Kurt Van de Wetering said today. “As a member of Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance, I also know that there are a lot of people in our community who self-medicate, to relieve the neuropathies that come along with diseases like Parkinson’s or Huntington’s,” he said.

The state medical marijuana program will make medical marijuana — allowed only in non-smokeable forms, including pills, oils and vapors — accessible to patients with conditions including cancer, HIV/AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, and Huntington’s disease, among others, according to state Department of Health regulations.

“I have done a lot of research. I know there’s a need and that this medicine is important. The taboo associated with it is frustrating,” Kurt Van de Wetering said.

Each of the five organizations granted registration to manufacture medical marijuana will also be granted the right to operate four registered dispensaries statewide, where regulated doses can be dispensed directly to patients. Ivy Acres’ Baiting Hollow site would not be a dispensary — the regulations prohibit siting a dispensary where the product is cultivated, Kurt Van de Wetering said.

“We are looking at several sites in Suffolk County,” he said. “The dispensary locations will be chosen based on demographics and accessibility. We are not currently looking at any locations in Riverhead.”

Jack Van de Wetering believes eastern Long Island is a good location for cultivation of the product — for the same reasons that it’s a good location for cultivating other plants. “We have almost 300 days of sunshine,” he said. “The weather is temperate. It’s one of the reasons we settled here in the first place,” he said.

“Really, it’s just like growing poinsettias,” he said. “Every two or three months we have another crop. You use light and shade to trick the plant to flower or not flower.”

Ivy Acres currently operates five locations — two on Long Island, two in New Jersey and one — a 400-acre rose farm — in Pennsylvania. The company employs 700 people. The new venture will operate out of its 22-acre Edwards Avenue facility and will add about 200 new employees, once operation at peak production — which will take about four years, Jack Van de Wetering said.

“They will be high quality, good-paying jobs, both white collar and blue collar,” his son said.

In addition to local job creation, the enterprise will have a significant economic benefit to Suffolk County. The Compassionate Care Act provides that a county where medical marijuana is manufactured will receive a 22.5 percent share of the 7 percent excise tax on medical marijuana sales.

Ivy Acres is projected to have $400 million in sales after about four years, Jack Van de Wetering said. Suffolk’s 22.5-percent share of the $28 million in excise taxes generated would mean $6.3 million in new annual tax revenue for the county.

Every county where medical marijuana is sold by a registered organization to a certified patient or designated caregiver will also receive 22.5 percent of the excise taxes assessed on such sales.

“The process and the product are very strictly regulated,” Jack Van de Wetering said.

The enterprise requires heavy start-up investment, beginning with a $10,000 nonrefundable application fee and a $200,000 registration fee. (Companies that are not selected as one of the five registered organizations will have the $200,000 registration fee returned.)

Ivy Acres will invest about $2 million in security systems for the its facilities if awarded registration status, according to the elder Van de Wetering.

The detailed plans the state requires are spelled out in Ivy Acres’ 1,000-page application, he said.

Father and son are currently seeking letters of support for their application from local officials, health care providers and businesses.

They met this morning with Supervisor Sean Walter to discuss their plans.

“I’m philosophically opposed to medical marijuana, because I believe it is just nothing more than an incremental approach toward legalizing the drug for recreational use and I can’t square that with everything we’re trying to do to reduce recreational drug use and drugged driving,” Walter said. “So I don’t support the state law.

“The Van de Weterings are a wonderful Riverhead farming family. They’ve done tremendous things for the town and I fully support the Van de Weterings,” Walter said.

The supervisor said representatives of two other companies came to see him about producing medical marijuana at sites inside the Enterprise Park at Calverton. He has not heard anything further from them, he said.

The deadline to submit registration applications is June 5 — extended by the state from the original May 29 deadline.

Action on the applications is expected within 45 days.

Ivy Acres will be ready to begin construction immediately, Jack Van de Wetering said, to be able to commence sales Jan. 1, 2016 as per the state law. Operations will begin in a secure 30,000 square foot greenhouse and expand to about 10 or 11 acres within a secure facility over the next few years, he said.