Payton Guion | NJ Advance Media

New Jersey’s newest medical marijuana dispensary, which opened this month in Bellmawr, could eventually sell up to 10,000 pounds of cannabis a year.

The Curaleaf dispensary previously shared space with the cultivation facility, but the new store stands alone across the street. Executive Director George Schidlovsky said the new dispensary allows Curaleaf to serve more patients and frees up the cultivation facility to grow a lot more marijuana.

NJ Advance Media took a tour of the new dispensary recently. Step inside with us.

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John Munson | NJ Advance Media

From Compassionate Sciences to Curaleaf

When Curaleaf -- formerly called Compassionate Sciences -- got the approval to open its new dispensary, it didn't bring the old name over to the new facility. PalliaTech, the company that runs the facility, changed the name to Curaleaf to match some of its other dispensaries outside of Jersey.

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Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media

The new dispensary, which Curaleaf says is the largest on the East Coast, is directly across the street from the old dispensary in an industrial section of Bellmawr.

The old dispensary is being converted into space to grow more marijuana. Schidlovsky said the revamped grow operation is expected to produce about 10,000 pounds of weed every year.

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Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media

Inside the dispensary

Inside the front door, a sterile waiting room greets patients. Think more doctor's office than head shop. When the dispensary opened on a Wednesday in mid-May, about a dozen patients were lined up to get their cannabis.

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Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media

Here is Schidlovsky sitting at a consultation space inside the dispensary. New patients who have registered with the program are required to talk with a dispensary employee on their first visit to figure out which marijuana strains or other products might be right for them.

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Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media

What can you buy?

On the day reporters visited the dispensary, Curaleaf was selling five different strains, along with its usual assortment of oils, lozenges and lotions.

Because of tight regulation, prices at medical dispensaries in New Jersey exceed what people pay on the street, according to the website Price of Weed.

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Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media

The topical lotion is shown here. Topicals, which don’t get users high, are rubbed into the skin and can provide pain relief or reduce inflammation.

Cannabis oil, extracted from the flower, is one of the more popular products sold at the dispensary, said Bridgette Fonseca, dispensary manager. Patients mix the oil with food or drink, or cook with it, to get relief.

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Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media

Schidlovsky was quick to say that Curaleaf is "not a head shop," but patients can buy glassware, grinders and other paraphernalia, which is displayed in a corner of the shop as to not attract too much attention.

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Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media

Patients enter the dispensary from the waiting room and get their products from a budtender.

Notice the ATM in the right side of the photo. Since cannabis is illegal on the federal level, dispensaries have to deal in cash.

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Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media

Budtenders sell products to patients, but they also advise them on the strains and the effects of those products.

Fonseca, the manager, said the most common question patients ask is, "Will this get me high?" Fonseca said some patients have never used marijuana before, while others don’t want the psychoactive effects associated with marijuana.

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Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media

At dispensaries in Oregon, customers can smell their marijuana before they decide what they want to buy. But at Curaleaf, the cannabis is prepackaged and can't be opened until the customer makes the purchase.

Patients can see the marijuana before buying, but Fonseca said that in the medical market, choosing a strain based on appearance is less common, since each strain is used to treat specific conditions.

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More marijuana links

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CORRECTION: This article previously said Curaleaf was the only New Jersey dispensary that sold products other than flower. It is not the only one that sells them.

Payton Guion may be reached at PGuion@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @PaytonGuion. Find NJ.com on Facebook.