HOLYOKE — Two recreational marijuana businesses in the city are one step closer to opening after being granted granted final retail licenses from state cannabis regulators earlier this month.
The two businesses, Canna Provisions Inc. at 380R Dwight St. and Boston Bud Factory Inc. at 73 Sargeant St. were granted their final retail licenses by the state Cannabis Control Commission at its public meeting on April 9. However, the two businesses cannot open yet. First, they must be authorized by the CCC to commence operations — and adult-use, also referred to as recreational, marijuana stores were deemed as nonessential services by Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration and were ordered to close until at least May 4 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical marijuana sales, on the other hand, continue as an essential service.
In early March, the CCC also granted a final retail license to The Verb is Herb at 74 Cottage St. in Easthampton. The Verb is Herb was given the green light to commence operations by state marijuana regulators on March 27, but cannot yet open because it is also a recreational store. Canna Provisions is currently in a management agreement with The Verb is Herb and is in the process of taking full ownership of the store through the CCC, which could be completed in the next few weeks, according to Canna Provisions spokesman Sean Curley.
Curley said Canna Provisions, which has an adult-use dispensary in Lee that’s been open since last year, hopes to open in Easthampton and Holyoke in May if the governor’s order is lifted. Canna Provisions still needs to get its Holyoke store inspected one last time by the CCC before it can be given authorization to sell, he said.
“Normally we would have been opening probably next week and trying to hire 20 to 30 people from the local neighborhood, but we’re going to be putting that on hold just until we can find out a little bit more about when we can come back,” Curley said about the Holyoke location.
Boston Bud Factory co-owner Frank Dailey said he’s been going through the licensing process for over two years, has been paying rent at the storefront for just under two years and have had his dispensary completely constructed for months. He hopes to have his recreational retail store open by Memorial Day if the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided by then. Dailey also needs one more inspection before he can be given the green light to start selling.
“It feels entirely strange. We’ve been waiting for this moment for so long and now we can’t do anything anyway,” Dailey said. “But it’s a great milestone … it’s a sign of good things to come. We’re getting very close to opening and that keeps us positive.”
In addition to the retail marijuana store, Dailey said he’s also received a provisional license from the CCC for a marijuana product manufacturing operation at the same location. He said he hopes to get a final license for his manufacturing facility in June so he can start growing later that month.
With a final retail license in hand, Dailey said he’s started to source product from already-approved marijuana businesses elsewhere in the state. By buying from third parties, Dailey said he’d be able to begin selling before his own manufacturing operation is up and running.
Dailey said the governor’s order to close adult-use marijuana businesses might actually work in his favor as it could create more product availability inventories pile up.
“If we would have been open already and got shut down we would likely be out of business,” Dailey said. “Our overhead would have jumped right up. Right now we’re only able to survive because we’re … keeping our overhead low while we’re trying to get open.”
Dailey, who’s planning another job fair for early May, called designating adult-use marijuana as a nonessential service “shortsighted and ignorant on the government’s part,” noting that methadone, alcohol and medical marijuana are all considered essential by the state. He said there are many people who need the medicinal benefits of cannabis but do not want to get registered for a medical card over privacy concerns.
“There are as many medical patients in the recreational stores as there are recreational patients, in my opinion,” Dailey said.
Dailey said Boston Bud Factory also has a pending proposal for a adult-use retail store in Springfield and eventually plans to move to the eastern part of the state.
Also at its April 9 meeting, the CCC granted provisional retail licenses to MassMedicum Corp. at 85 University Drive in Amherst, as well as Tigertown, LLC at 56 Jackson St. in Holyoke. It also granted a provisional marijuana product manufacturing license to Treeworks of Massachusetts LLC at 3 West St. in Hatfield. Provisional licenses are granted before final licenses and give businesses the opportunity to ask the state to inspect their premises.
Other marijuana businesses in the area have also received final and provisional licenses; a full list of application and license statuses from the CCC are available through mass-cannabis-control.com.
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.