{"id":34313,"date":"2019-04-05T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T16:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/04\/05\/bostons-first-dispensary-opens-as-massachusetts-struggles-with-growing-pot-industry\/"},"modified":"2019-04-06T00:35:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T08:35:41","slug":"bostons-first-dispensary-opens-as-massachusetts-struggles-with-growing-pot-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/04\/05\/bostons-first-dispensary-opens-as-massachusetts-struggles-with-growing-pot-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston\u2019s First Dispensary Opens as Massachusetts Struggles With Growing Pot Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Authorities were relieved that the first day of adult-use cannabis sales in the Boston area last month went smoothly. The move marked a symbolic step forward for the legal market in Massachusetts, approved by the commonwealth\u2019s voters in 2016.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s first legal sales were repeatedly forestalled by\u00a0bureaucratic delays<\/a>\u00a0last year, and consumer impatience was palpable. Finally, on the first day of business at the\u00a0New England Treatment Access<\/a>\u00a0outlet in Brookline on March 23, a total of 2,515 customers were happily and peacefully served.<\/p>\n

There was been something of a\u00a0feeding frenzy<\/a>\u00a0in November, when two medical marijuana dispensaries,\u00a0Cultivate<\/a> in Leicester and NETA\u2019s other store in Northampton, became the first retail outlets in the state to offer adult-use cannabis. Traffic jams snarled Leicester, and some residents complained about rowdy customers \u2014 although the number of sales did not match those on opening day in Brookline.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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Opening the day with no line here at #NETABrookline<\/a>! <\/p>\n

Come on down for some coffee, muffins and premium #cannabis<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Browse our menu and reserve your order ahead of time here: https:\/\/t.co\/PpoPdy20yz<\/a><\/p>\n

We look forward to serving you! pic.twitter.com\/GRGk88H59D<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NETA (@netacaremass) March 24, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Fears of chaos in Brookline were exacerbated by a shutdown of the transit line serving the area due to scheduled repairs. But as\u00a0Patch<\/a>\u00a0notes, the\u00a0New England Cannabis Convention<\/a> was simultaneously held at Boston\u2019s Hynes Convention Center, which may have siphoned off some of the aficionados. Workshops at the convention focused on what the emerging cannabis industry in Massachusetts will look like.<\/p>\n

Equity and Local Control<\/h4>\n

Although a retail outlet has yet to come to Boston proper, officials are debating how the city\u2019s licensing system for cannabis businesses will operate. Currently under discussion is a plan by City Councilor Kim Janey to take control of the process from the office of Mayor Marty Walsh. Janey\u2019s plan would assign first priority to companies whose owners are from those communities that have been most impacted by cannabis prohibition and the war on drugs, and would also effectively impose a two-year ban on larger cannabis companies backed by money from outside the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we aren\u2019t intentional, we perpetuate the status quo, which favors large corporations from out of state to come in and take up all the licenses,\u201d Janey said in an interview with the\u00a0Globe<\/a>. \u201cLocal residents deserve a shot. Right now in Boston, there\u2019s nothing in place for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some in the state bureaucracy are open to such sentiments. \u201cCouncilor Janey\u2019s proposed ordinance is, to me, the new national model,\u201d Shaleen Title of the\u00a0Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission<\/a> told the Globe. \u201cIt thoughtfully and deliberately complements the state\u2019s efforts to create the fair industry called for under Massachusetts law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing Ambitions<\/strong><\/h4>\n

According to a count by Boston.com<\/a>, there are now 14 adult-use dispensaries around the state. Apart from the locations in Brookline, Leicester and Northampton, there are also outlets in Salem, Wareham, Easthampton, Great Barrington, \u00a0Pittsfield, Fall River, Hudson, Gardner, Uxbridge, Lowell and Greenfield. More will be opening soon, but the licenses are being staggered by region to avoid customers having to undertake long drives to purchase.<\/p>\n

Next in line may be Springfield, a largely working-class city on the Connecticut River, where officials are likewise hashing out the licensing process. Mayor Domenic J. Sarno guardedly told the local\u00a0Republican<\/a>\u00a0newspaper that the city\u2019s Internal Review Committee is developing protocols \u201cto assure a fair, comprehensive, and open planning process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further west, in the state\u2019s distinctly hippie-flavored Berkshire Mountains,\u00a0Canna Provisions<\/a>\u00a0is waiting to open its doors in the town of Lee, with an emphasis on products from local craft and co-operative cannabis purveyors. Canna Provision partner and chief operating officer Erik Williams, the former executive director of the\u00a0Connecticut NORML<\/a>, pointed out to Cannabis Now that the Lee location will be the state\u2019s closest to the New York line, calling the town the \u201cgateway to the Berkshires.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the progressive towns in the Berkshires jumped on board and set up the rules and regulations in a timely manner to establish local control,\u201d Williams said. He calls the Berkshires a \u201cglobal hotspot for arts, outdoor recreation and wellness retreats,\u201d and believes cannabis will soon be joining its list of attractions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 partner in the effort in is CEO Meg Sanders, a veteran of the\u00a0Colorado<\/a> industry who helped open one of the first dispensaries in the Centennial State. Despite this out-of-state background, Canna Provisions plans to strongly emphasize local Berkshire growers. <\/p>\n

Canna Provisions is also planning a second location in Holyoke, a post-industrial city in the Springfield metropolitan corridor, where Mayor Alex Morse has been loudly promoting<\/a>\u00a0his vision for a cannabis-fueled economic renaissance. Morse has even\u00a0broached spaces for \u201csocial consumption\u201d\u00a0<\/a>in Amsterdam-style caf\u00e9s, and is petitioning the Cannabis Control Commission to take up\u00a0this idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Williams says Canna Provisions\u2019s Lee location will open doors by early May, with sales slated for the Holyoke outlet in June. \u201cWe\u2019re betting big on the mayor\u2019s vision,\u201d he said.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

TELL US<\/strong>, what are the latest developments in your state\u2019s cannabis economy?<\/p>\n

The post Boston\u2019s First Dispensary Opens as Massachusetts Struggles With Growing Pot Industry<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Boston\u2019s First Dispensary Opens as Massachusetts Struggles With Growing Pot Industry<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authorities were relieved that the first day of adult-use cannabis sales in the Boston area last month went smoothly. The move marked a symbolic step forward for the legal market in Massachusetts, approved by the commonwealth\u2019s voters in 2016. The state\u2019s first legal sales were repeatedly forestalled by\u00a0bureaucratic delays\u00a0last year,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[232,50,170,707,1334,9614,1930],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34314,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34313\/revisions\/34314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}