Maine's Route 1: Lobster, Blueberry and Cannabis Huts

Route 1, almost 100 years old, stretches for over 500 km along the coast and north of Maine, carrying millions of tourists each year between the overcrowded clam huts of Kittery and the vast forests and potato fields of Kittery. Fort Kent.

Between the blueberry museums, ice cream, beaches and lobster huts, tourists who drive what might be called the main street of Vacationland are more likely to spot a marijuana store – 22 d 'between them were counted and a new one opened every month.

However, no tourist can attend them. Only holders of a medical card issued by the State can make purchases there. Maine voters legalized cannabis for recreational purposes in 2016, but sales to adults are not expected to begin until March, making the drug the only legal marijuana market in Maine – for now.

Most of these stores were not even there a year ago. The first of eight medical marijuana dispensaries licensed by the State of Maine opened in 2011. But it is Maine's caregivers who are behind a wave of small shops open since 2016, allowing patients to access more easily while pushing legal boundaries.

Some, like Beach Boys in South Portland, are aiming for a modern cannabis retail experience, with a bright interior and a Dunkin 'Donuts next door. Others, like High and Mighty in Steuben, opt for this Down East vibe, inviting the rustivists to pass by piles of old lobster traps and have a good time on his gnarled porch.

Until this summer, medical marijuana retailers were selling mainly to Mainers. Tourists from a state that allowed the use of marijuana for medical purposes could obtain a visiting patient card issued by Maine, but only the most experienced tourists knew how to initiate the long process of sending by mail before their visit.

Paul McCarrier of Legalize Maine, who operates 1 Mill on Route 1 in Belfast, lobbied to change the visiting patient system in Maine, calling it useless and confusing. Other states have found these patients eligible, he noted. And most tourists know that Maine has legalized all forms of adult marijuana use in 2016.

"Last summer, I had to turn away many patients, including three people who thought they had completed the process," said McCarrier. "The visiting patients were confused at first, and then became very angry."

In June, Maine enacted a new law facilitating the purchase of medical marijuana here for card-carrying tourists, eliminating all the paperwork needed as long as their country of origin allows them to buy their medications staying out of the country.

The improved reciprocity law is the latest change to the marijuana program at the state's 20-year-old medical plant. What began in 1999 as a personal growth allowance has become a nationally recognized network of eight state-approved health clinics and about 2,500 medical marijuana caregivers.

Until this year, patients had to have a qualifying condition, such as AIDS or Alzheimer's, to qualify for medical marijuana certification, but now they can get approval from that doctor for whatever reason. Nationally, most patients use medical marijuana to treat chronic pain, tremors and nausea. Some cannabis products rich in THC can create a high effect for the user, while cannabidiol, or CBD, are often made from hemp all in relief.

A GROWING BASIS OF CUSTOMERS

The new law on reciprocity significantly expands Maine's medical marijuana consumer base. Maine alone has never had more than 50,000 patients. The new law allows card-carrying patients from 25 states, from Alaska to Washington, to buy here easily, with new states being added each day.

Last week, after finalizing some of the details of the regulations, Maine added Massachusetts to its reciprocal list. This is a major asset for the medical cannabis industry in Maine as Massachusetts has more than one in five visitors staying overnight in Maine. With its addition, all of New England can now buy in Maine.

This has resulted in increased sales for some state Route 1 cannabis companies, but not all.

Your green thumb in Kittery welcomes many tourists to his store. Although the city prohibits all marijuana signage, a small sandwich panel touting CBD products informs eagle-eyed motorists that they are passing Maine's first cannabis store on Route 1 northbound.

Your green thumb has been sold to patients from as far away as California and Nevada, but staff working in this cozy little store says that the majority of customers residing outside of the state come from the New England, most coming from New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

"Tourists are very excited about marijuana in Maine," said budtender Alex Griffin. "Maine has a reputation for high quality cannabis. And I would be lying if I did not say that they also like the low prices of Maine. The best quality for a lot less than what they pay at home. "

The prices of many popular marijuana varieties for medical purposes in Maine are lower than those of other states.

For example, an eighth of an ounce of Blue Dream, a very popular hybrid cannabis strain favored for daytime treatment of pain, depression and nausea, can be purchased for as little as $ 33 in the Maine, but will cost $ 48 in Philadelphia and $ 50 in Massachusetts.

Like most marijuana products, because it is still illegal at the federal level, every state medical program has a unique set of do's and don'ts. For example, marijuana for medical purposes can not be smoked in New York, Ohio or consumed in New Jersey. Patients in these states are often eager to taste Maine's flowers and chocolates.

The Maine Office of Marijuana Policy expects patients of its visitors to abide by the rules of their state of origin, which would mean that a New Yorker card-holder should not buy any drugs to smoke here, but he will not monitor this aspect of the law, or expect Maine stores to do so, said a spokesman.

FROM THE BORDER

Kittery is home to two cannabis stores on Route 1 – Your Green Thumb and Southern Maine Apothecary, a home-based business that quietly announces its presence with a simple wooden sign – and a cannabis education booth is in parking failure almost every weekend. .

Mitch Delaney, a caregiver, is organizing a one-man marijuana information campaign among weekly jam sessions, yoga classes, and artisan brew tastings in the so-called restaurant truck. Kittery wall building.

"We started doing this to educate Kittery, to teach them that recreational cannabis was not something to be feared, but that it became a tourist activity, too," said Delaney. "Many outsiders know Maine legalized, but do not realize they can not buy it here." We educate and defend.

If someone passes with an out-of-state medical card, Delaney is only too happy to send him back to Indico, the medical marijuana providers company for medical purposes, that he directs out of his Kittery home. He does not sell his information table, but he will deliver to someone who will learn about him there.

Maine has launched a public education campaign called "Good to know," but it focuses on public health warnings and what is legally allowed, not where tourists can buy it. – and the Maine Office of Tourism does not have a tourism-themed marketing campaign in the country. works.

Instead, card-carrying tourists turn to online services, such as Weedmaps and Leafly, even though many small stores in Maine can not afford to pay their high advertising rates, nor with an Airbnb host or a friendly hotel concierge. Or they can simply stop at the first store they see, as they buy lobster or ice cream.

A DESERT OF SOUTHERN MAINE

Heading north on Route 1, a curious canna tourist leaving Kittery enters a virtual marijuana desert. The Southern Maine region has many caregivers and two state-licensed clinics, but coastal city planners are striving to keep marijuana off Highway 1 to protect their family-friendly image.

Tourists tasting Stonewall Kitchen jams, walking on Marginal Way or hoping to spot a Bush going into the Presidential compound will not find a medical cannabis store on Route 1 in York, Ogunquit or the United States. one of the Kennebunks. design.

Beach Boys Clean Cannabis is located 47 km south of Portland, just before Route 1 leaves the metropolitan area to reach Interstate 295. They have their share of tourists, but there is nothing to see with the other owners' shop, Fire on Fore, which has the tourist charm of the old port of Portland.

While most tourists stop in Portland and can visit one of the many medical stores opened by caregivers, fill up on gas at a marijuana gas station or do them. shops of the state's largest medical dispensary, Wellness Connection, they will have to abandon Route 1 here. , as well as in Brunswick and Bath.

Wellness operates four dispensaries in Maine, but none can claim a route 1 address. Sales to tourists from outside the state have doubled throughout the chain since the 39 entry into force of the new law on reciprocity, but only about 4% of the total number of cases.

Now that the program is licensed, the wellness center welcomes many more "curious canna people who come for a walk around to look around," said Executive Director Patricia Rosi. Most tourists do not have a medical card, so they leave with a bag of non-psychoactive CBD products. As a result, sales of CBD have increased significantly.

MARIJUANA MIDCOAST

Route 1 does not become greener before Woolwich, 32 miles north. It houses two health care shops, Holistic Alternatives and Farley's Cannabis Farm. The former operates in an old Chinese restaurant, while the latter was built from scratch by one of its owners, a retired builder.

According to Sayra Small, tourists visit Farley almost every day. Some come with their medical cards out of the state and end up sitting with Small, which helps them find the proper strain or delivery pattern to reflect the medical regime that they have established at home.

"You would not think it would be easy to look after a patient who is out of state because he probably knows what works for him, but it's hard to get the same results when you sell different products, "said Small. "I treat every visitor patient as a new, a beginner, even though I can only treat it once."

But others leave empty-handed, and sometimes upset, because they thought they could buy in any store since Maine voted in favor of legalizing cannabis at home. adult use three years ago, said Small. Disappointed employees told staff that they had decided to come to Maine to learn about the marijuana scene.

From Woolwich to Ellsworth, tourists with a medical card will have a day of discovery. More than half of Maine's Route 1 medical cannabis stores are on this 160-kilometer stretch of the center of the coast, including a handful that openly woo the crowd of tourists.

The mix of overloaded Subarus and spotless BMWs parked in front of Thomaston's Higher Vibes trailer in the colors of the heliotrope, one weekday in August, came from seven states. Visitors posed for selfies in front of the trailer, which sells cannabis on one side and gems on the other. A food truck shares the lot.

On the road, Nick Westervelt, owner of Scrimshaw, estimates that 25% of his sales during his first summer on Rockland's main street were intended for state patients. Many have lived in the area for years and live in family homes on the islands served by the local ferry line.

Westervelt spends as much time educating his clients, whether local or tourism, about marijuana as much as he sells it. Retail customers can see the cannabis plants used to create the drug and observe what the grower tends to do, through glass windows overlooking the growing room.

"Being on Highway 1, on Main Street, is not just pedestrian traffic and sales," Westervelt said. "It's a question of exposure, of acceptance by the public, not just for what I do or sell, but for those who rely on the plant for their well-being and marijuana growing. in general."

"Unveil it in the open air," he said. "That's how you win hearts and minds."

Some mid-term spots remain local. In Highbrow, Waldoboro, a beautiful place of wood and glass that boasts of being a "high class seal", tourists account for less than 3% of sales. Those who venture into it are experienced cannabis users, whose consumption is much the same as that of hospitalized patients, said the owners.

"The Maine program is much more accessible than other states," said co-owner Noah Rosen. "Patients have been impressed by the number of options they have and the affordability compared to their home country."

Northbound motorists move to Sweetport in Northport, whose owner publishes easy-to-use video tours for tourists on YouTube. Belfast hosts two shops on Route 1, 1 Mill and The Herbalist. Tourists crossing the Penobscot Narrows Bridge will discover Green Island Herb, a welcoming family shop located on the small island of Verona.

After hitting Ellsworth, tourists will need a close look to spot Main Street Medical in a brick storefront. At this point, some tourists will be leaving Highway 1 for Bar Harbor or Acadia. They will go through other stores, including a state-approved clinic, to get to Jordan House Popovers.

DOWN EAST AND COUNTY

The cornucopia of retail cannabis in Mid-West Maine ends here. Tourists following Route 1 Down East at the heart of Maine's lobster industry expect the roadside stands to be dominated by ice cream, blueberries, and typical Maine crustaceans.

Steuben is the only exception. This community of 1,100 people, about halfway between Ellsworth and Machias, is home to two potty shops, High Hopes and High and Mighty. It's a lot of marijuana for a city whose center is a church, a library and a high school.

On this part of Route 1, which often bypasses the most picturesque waterfronts of its many peninsulas, a roadside sign announcing marijuana really stands out. This is enough to lure the weary tourists into a long driveway lined with lobster traps covered with sea syrups leading up to the High and Mighty porch.

"During the winter, our guests were mostly all from Maine," said owner Nick Couture, who opened his store in December while waiting for a lobster license. "This summer we saw a lot of tourists from many states. Some do not have marijuana for medical purposes, so they stop to take a picture with astonishment. "

Lake Smoke Farms at Machias is located at the eastern end of the 1th portion of the Atlantic Highway that runs along the Maine coast. Tourists following the lobster trail and the lonely lighthouse often stop here to discover the local marijuana scene while doing a laundering tour in the launderette next door.

This is the last medical marijuana store on the northern stretch of Highway 1 of the Atlantic Highway. Approximately 20 km away, Highway 1 will turn north and travel 200 km to the Maine Roof through Houlton, Presque Isle and Caribou Canadian Border.

Motorists pass by a magnificent national wildlife refuge and acres of potato fields, but only three cannabis shops: Highzenbudd, managed by a Monticello garage; Safe Alternatives, the most northerly dispensary in the state, in Caribou; and just opened Full Bloom Cannabis in Grand Isle.

"I am a pilgrim in an unholy country," said David Wallingford, a South Grafter from Suder, who found Monticello during a snowmobile trip. "I grow grass where Donald Trump got 82% of the votes. This dark dark red place in the state of Maine? That's where I live and brought a weed here. "

It goes without saying that Wallingford and his policies, which include wooden walls covered with anti-Trump slogans, are not very popular with the city's fathers, most of whom take their breakfast at dinner. on the other side of the road. alongside a group of agents from the US Border Patrol.

But that did not slow things down at Highzenbudd, a marijuana delivery service, a church and a cannabis store in one. Anyone who drives anywhere here should go past his business, a former convenience store, so that the green cross banner that he hangs on his second floor balcony is as powerful as one. neon.

"We are eager to grow and put people to work," he said. "And more and more grass killer."

Few tourists travel from Kittery to Fort Kent, where Steve Rusnack opened his Full Bloom cannabis store. This is the last medical marijuana store on Route 1 north of Maine, located just two blocks from the America's First Mile kitsch sign on the Canadian border.

Fort Kent has banned recreational sales, but Grand Isle, where it recently opened a second store, has in theory approved marijuana sales for recreational purposes. their medical cards are not accepted.

"I did not choose Route 1 for tourism," said Rusnack, who estimates that tourism purchases account for about 5% of his sales. "Here, Highway 1 is the only major road we have. If you want anyone to know you're here, even locals, you have to be on Route 1. I like the new law because it makes things easier, but that did not move me much. sales. "

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