The opening of Brooklyn’s very first medical marijuana dispensary is getting ever closer — and Staten Island’s won’t be too far behind.
After several months of construction, Citiva Medical is “in the home stretch and hoping to open in December,” Director of Marketing Amy Holdener told Metro this week. “We’re getting into the design element, the aesthetic to bring this to life for Brooklyn.”
Citiva will open its first city-based medical marijuana dispensary at 202 Flatbush Ave., directly across from the Barclays Center — and two doors down from Ovenly, which Holdener said is “just fantastic — and a little funny.”
“It was absolutely this location that sealed the deal for us,” she added. “Yes, there’s foot traffic for Barclays, but you just have the amazing community of businesses surrounding you. There’s lots of fantastic things up and down the street, and we’re excited to be a part of it.”
RELATED: With marijuana mainstream, smoke shops are elevating customer experience
Certified medical marijuana patients will be able to purchase cannabis vaporizers, tinctures, capsules, water-soluble powder and topicals at Citiva.
In July, the subsidiary of iAnthus Capital broke ground on a 40,000-square-foot cannabis cultivation facility in Orange County, which will service its medical marijuana facilities in Brooklyn, Chemung County, Wappingers Falls and Staten Island.
The latter two will “open soon after Brooklyn,” Holdener said.
Medical marijuana education a top priority for Citiva
Citiva was formed by local physicians, pharmacists and medical business leaders who are “doing everything we can to participate in the conversation around cannabis as medicine,” Holdener said.
To that end, the company’s pharmacist and medical director have been doing in-office presentations to educate physicians and other medical professionals interested in medical marijuana. They’re also hosting community medical events in Brooklyn and Staten Island.
“We’ve certainly seen an uptick in interest from the medical community from when we first started getting into this maybe three, four years ago,” Holdener said. “We’d see maybe 50 come to a seminar, and now we get 150 or more, and I think that’s only going to continue.”
