Medical marijuana could plant local roots

Less than a year before the first legal dose of marijuana is sold in New York, Riverdale resident Ari Hoffnung has found himself thick in the fray for one of five state licenses for marijuana dispensers.

Mr. Hoffnung founded Fiorello Pharmaceuticals last spring as speculation mounted that state lawmakers would legalize medical marijuana. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a limited bill for the drug’s medical use in July.

The application costs for each company in the running could come to several hundred thousand dollars. The start-up costs for some companies could run to more than $20 million.

Mr. Hoffnung declined to go into details of his own operation beyond saying he has already hired several employees. He added that it is too early to say where he would locate his dispensaries.

While some aspiring dispensers might eventually want to sell marijuana for recreational use, he said he is only interested in the drug’s medical applications.

For Mr. Hoffnung, pot is personal. He started to focus on the drug after his brother was diagnosed with stage IV lymphoma in summer 2013. For the first time in his life, Mr. Hoffnung considered what it would mean to lose the sibling he had grown up with.

There is no stage after stage IV, but sometimes lymphoma is curable. Mr. Hoffnung found himself unable to rest with the knowledge that his brother was in excruciating pain. While doctors carefully planned his treatment, Mr. Hoffnung wondered how to relieve the man’s pain. Could he ever reclaim his former quality of life?

Mr. Hoffnung’s brother was living in Israel, where alternative pain treatments like medical marijuana have been available alongside traditional medicine since the early 1990s. Presented with these options, Mr. Hoffnung’s brother was able to find a mix that soothed the pain.

Mr. Hoffnung became intrigued by the culture of medical treatment in Israel and reports from his brother that medical marijuana was widely available there.

“When he sat around with his chemo friends, many of them would keep saying how helpful cannabis had been with the pain,” Mr. Hoffnung said.