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South Jersey's First Medical Marijuana Dispensary Opens For Business

By Jim Melwert

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) -- New Jersey's second medical marijuana dispensary -- and the first in South Jersey -- opened its doors to patients this morning.

Compassionate Care Foundation is tucked back in an industrial park in Egg Harbor Township.  No walk-ins are allowed; it's by appointment only.

Robert Seeley, from Tuckerton, NJ, deals with chronic pain from combat in Iraq.  He's been going to the dispensary in Montclair, a suburb of New York City, but says this is much closer.

Seeley says he struggled with the fog of other prescriptions his doctors had given him, but medicinal marijuana helps.

"Now I'm out and I'm enjoying my life, I go to my nephew's soccer games and I'm not – I'm living life.  It's fun and it's great."

Medicinal marijuana was legalized in New Jersey in 2010, since then dozens of regulations have been drafted, and there are several steps to sign up with the state-run program, including the okay from a physician who is regisgtered with the program, and patients can only buy two ounces a month.

Over the next year, four other dispensaries are expected to open including one in Bellmawr (Camden County) in February.

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