'Inferior' Marijuana Shutters Center for Two Weeks

Greenleaf Compassion Center, the Bloomfield Avenue nonprofit registered with the state to grow and sell medicinal marijuana, will close for two weeks, due to a poor crop, NJ.com reported. 

One of the center's founders, Julio Valentin, said about 10 percent of the center's latest crop was "inferior," depleting its inventory of suitably good product, the article said.

Valentin said the center cancelled the center's appointments and promised to contact customers when more medicinal pot was available in about two weeks.

Greenleaf is one of seven state-certified dispensaries authorized by the state under the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, signed in 2010, serving nearly 1,000 patients, and was the first to be certified to grow marijuana.

The article notes the closure impacts the center's patients, some of whom may take to the streets to buy their marijuana.

"I am buying from a patient underground. I have no choice," Lawrenceville resident Susan Sturner, a 53-year-old glaucoma patient, said. "I am depending on a steady state supply to keep me out of the operating room and from going blind." 

State officials also expressed surprise at Greenleaf's closure, noting recent tests did not show any problems with the pot.