What’s the Status of Medical Marijuana in Central MA

Monday, February 22, 2016

GoLocalWorcester News Team

Massachusetts voters legalized the use of medical marijuana in 2012 and to date, only six facilities has been approved in the Commonwealth - none of them in Worcester County.

Of the six facilities have been approved in Massachusetts - the most recent was this month in Lowell. On February 12, Patriot Care Corp was approved to sell.

The other approved to operate are located in Salem, Ayer, Brockton, Brookline, North Hampton. and another eleven facilities have received “provisional certificate of registration and none of those facilities are located in Worcester County.

Will there ever be a facility in Central MA

According to state records, there are a number of facilities proposed in Central Massachusetts that are in one phase or another of the approval process, including North Grafton and Shrewsbury.

In Grafton, a group of citizens have joined together to raise questions and preliminarily, oppose the proposed facility. Concerned Grafton Citizens describe their opposition as:

The proposed North Grafton location for a Marijuana Dispensary is owned by Sargon Realty at a school bus stop where children gather daily and on top of a residential neighborhood.

North Grafton families and homes are being threatened by an unfair process being pushed through over the holidays without public knowledge. Put in place to benefit the few with vested interests while harming many residents, their homes and neighborhoods. Please help fight for proper siting and location.

In Shrewsbury, the town has moved forward with an approval that would allow the facility to move to the next step in the state approval.

In Worcester, initial proposed facilities are not close to approval.

What is Next

The implementation of the programs rules and regulations was slow and approval of proposed facilities even slower. The approval process has proven to take years and with no proposed Worcester facilities in the latter stages on the process - it will be a year or more, at the earliest, before a facility could be located in Worcester.

Related Slideshow: 10 Things You Need to Know About Marijuana Dispensaries in MA

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#10

The first marijuana dispensary didn't open in Massachusetts until 3 years after voters approved the use of the therapeutic drug.

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#9

June 29, 2015 was the first day that companies could apply to open dispensaries and over 50 applications were submitted.

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#8

The state has awarded 15 out of the allotted 35 applicants with the privilege of growing and selling medical marijuana.

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#7

So far, only six have been given permission to open their doors. :

- In Good Health in Brockton they plan to open later in the summer

- Alternative Therapies Group which was the first to open on June 24

- Compassionate Care in Ayer plan to open later in the summer

- New England Treatment Access (2) which will have its cultivation site in Franklin and dispensaries planned for Brookline and Northampton they plan to open in the fall

- Patriot Care in Lowell

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#6

In Good Health’s president says that their dispensary will open for business in weeks following on the heels of ATG..

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#5

Governor Baker wanted to revamp the medical marijuana licensing process and treat it like any other health care facility.

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#4

Previously, the state set deadlines for applications, then analyzed the entiregroup simultaneously. Now, the process will allow dispensaries to apply for licenses on a rolling basis, and each one will be scored individually.