Public meetings began in Utica this week discussing whether residents are comfortable with a local farm applying to grow and dispense medical marijuana in New York.
Twelve-year-old Mackensie Kulawy was diagnosed with intractable epilepsy or Doose Syndrome when she was four and has been living with persistent seizures. Julie Kulawy, of New York Mills, is her mother.
“We worry that she may never wake up,” Kulawy said. “She falls, if she's on stairs she falls down. At the dinner table tonight she had a seizure and everything went flying off the table. So it would give her her life back.”
The Kulawys are advocates for medical marijuana. They say they've seen marijuana cause a reduction in the number of seizures in other children with epilepsy. In this case, the marijuana plant is not smoked, but concentrated into an oil. It can be taken orally and does not get the user high.
Mackensie Kulawy, who is on dietary restrictions because of her epilepsy, is also looking forward to what she could eat if her condition was reduced.
“Donuts! Sweets! It would be a miracle,” Mackensie said.
Last year, the New York state legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo passed the Compassionate Care Act. The act will allow five organizations in New York state to manufacture and distribute medical marijuana to patients with severe medical conditions.
Anthony Quintal Jr. is the owner of Brightwaters Farms in Utica and is applying to become a medical marijuana grower and dispenser.
“Community support is tremendous,” Quintal said. “For us to be able to get a letter to put to our application that you folks want this and condone this is huge. Without you folks, it's done. We can't do it without you.”
Quintal also stressed the importance of job creation in the area.
“A medicinal marijuana operation -- there's going to be 100 jobs created at the facility. If we are granted this license we're going to need to spend $15,000 to $20,000 in six months to build a laboratory. We're not bringing in people from New York City to do that, we're using local people,” Quintal said.
The state is expected to decide which five companies will receive licenses by July.
