ELMHURST — A medicinal marijuana company with a distribution site by the Queens Center Mall has been approved by the state to make home deliveries, bringing pain relief to homebound patients, officials said.
Vireo Health, which opened its Queens Boulevard dispensary last January, will deliver throughout the city's five boroughs, along with Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties, the company said.
The service is crucial to patients who live far from a dispensary of medical-grade cannabis, like Brooklyn which currently has none.
“New Yorkers have increasingly come to expect home delivery and we plan on leveraging ‘last mile’ supply chain technologies to meet and exceed patient expectations,” Ari Hoffnung, CEO of Vireo Health of New York, said in a statement.
Home delivery will help the company expand its reach to patients suffering from diseases such as cancer and ALS, Vireo Health's chief medical officer, Dr. Stephen Dahmer, said in a statement.
“Day-in and day-out our goal at Vireo Health of New York is to provide the best possible care and service to our patients," he said.
Security will be a focus of the delivery program, with at least two employees making the trips. Delivery vehicles will also have GPS tracking devices, officials said.
Vireo expects to launch the program within 90 days, with delivery prices announced at a later date.
