Medical Marijuana facility gains support

By Derek Liebig

Support for a medical marijuana cultivation center in Washington County continues to grow. Dana Haff

The Washington County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution last Friday in support of such a facility, which could generate thousands of dollars in tax revenue.

Under the state’s Compassionate Care Act, a total of five organizations will receive licenses to operate in New York.

The Compassionate Relief Center of New York, Inc., is seeking to secure a license to grow and distribute medical marijuana.

Ted Berndt, a Cambridge resident and former salesman for Pfizer, is looking to transform a former mushroom growing facility in Jackson into a medical marijuana cultivation center.

Berndt, who owns the Washington County Agri-Business Park, said the facility will create more than two dozen jobs.

“These will be good paying jobs in agriculture and ancillary fields such as human resources, accounting, security,” Berndt told Hartford town officials earlier this month.

Berndt projects the facility could generate as much as $5.2 million in revenue in the first year and $9.3 million by the third year of operation.

“This is about high quality, plant-based medicine, jobs and taxes for Washington County,” Berndt said. “It’s a legitimate business.”

Under the act, medical marijuana would be subject to a 7 percent excise tax and the county in which the marijuana is produced would receive 22.5 percent of that tax. The county in which the marijuana is sold would also receive 22.5 percent of the tax revenue.

Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff said that’s especially important in Washington County, which ranks last out of 57 counties in New York in sales tax dollars per capita.

“We’re at the bottom of the barrel,” said Haff, who successfully advocated for the inclusion of a clause in the resolution pointing out the county’s sales tax rating. “We really need this.”

Berndt already has a cultivation team, medical director, lab testing manager and security measures in place and has been trying to drum up support for his facility in an effort to make his bid for a license more attractive.

The operation has received the support of the towns of Jackson, White Creek and Hartford as well as the village boards of Greenwich and Cambridge. Jackson Supervisor Alan Brown said the town took the additional step of writing a letter of support to the state Department of Health, which will provide regulatory oversight of the growing facilities.

Besides supporting the siting of a cultivation center in Washington County, supervisors also approved a separate resolution in support of Compassionate Relief Center of New York, Inc., specifically.

Both resolutions were approved by all 16 supervisors in attendance. Mitch Suprenant, a retired Fort Edward Police Chief, was absent.

A 45-day comment period on the state’s medical marijuana regulations ended last month. The state is reviewing that information and it’s expected it will issue applications this spring.

Under the Compassionate Care Act, which was approved last July, the first crops of medical marijuana are to be grown and distributed next January.