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Anyone wishing to buy marijuana for recreational purposes on the first day of sales in Massachusetts was faced with long queues, traffic jams and wait times of several hours, while Thousands of customers were visiting the only two dispensaries licensed to sell the drug to all adults on Tuesday.
The lines returned again for day 2 sales Wednesday. However, Bay Staters (and visitors from outside) should soon have more options.
As crowds grappled with rain and melted snow Tuesday in Leicester and Northampton, the Cannabis Control Commission was back in Boston, approving the latest licenses from two other retailers in Easthampton and Salem. By including a recently licensed marijuana store, this means that three medical marijuana dispensaries are about to open for sale to adults in Massachusetts.
"This is not the end," CCC President Steve Hoffman told the meeting on Tuesday, citing the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
"It's not even the beginning of the end," he said. "But maybe the end of the beginning."
The three clinics that are about to join Cultivate in Leicester and New England Access Treatment in Northampton in the recreational marijuana sector still need to receive CCC "start-up" notifications, which will allow them to start sales in three days. Hoffman said on Tuesday that there were still a few more steps to all three.
"They have to get their stocks in METRC [the state’s “seed-to-sale” tracking system]and they have to let us out and do a physical inspection of the stocks, "he said, according to the State House News Service. "These three stores will open as quickly as it happens. It's under the control of the licensees. "
Verlife, the Wareham dispensary, issued a final retail license at the CCC meeting on November 1st. He hopes to open at the beginning of next month. The clinic located at 112 Main Street would be the first recreational marijuana store on the south coast.
"We are delighted," Shelley Stormo, general manager of the company, told Wicked Local earlier this week.
The two medical clinics that obtained the latest licenses for leisure sales on Tuesday are INSA in Easthampton and Alternative Therapies Group in Salem.
Mark Zatyrka, CEO of INSA, told Boston.com that their last CCC inspection could take place in the next 10 days, which would allow the 122 Pleasant St. clinic to open in "a few weeks ". there is no concrete opening date and it could look more like a month.
"I hope we are considering an opening for adult use in the coming weeks," Zatyrka said Tuesday night.
INSA also has a dispensary in Springfield, which will remain reserved for marijuana sales for medical purposes.
"We are inviting patients to visit our Springfield clinic to avoid the crowds and long wait times associated with leisure sales," said Ian Kelly, the company's operations director, in a statement, adding : "We expect a substantial increase in pedestrian traffic to occur during the first sale to adults."
Alternative Therapies Group, or ATG, estimates that they will be open in three to four weeks.
"This is another important step in the process and we thank you for your patience as we continue to work diligently with our regulators to complete the additional steps that need to be taken before to start sales to adults in this facility, "Chris Edwards, Executive Director ATG, wrote on a blog Tuesday after the CCC issued them his latest retail license.
The store located at 50 Grove St. in Salem became the first Massachusetts dispensary to open as part of the state's medical marijuana program in 2015. ATG also obtained a license to sell at Provisional detail for a new Medico-Recreational Hybrid Clinic located at 49 Macy Street in Amesbury.
In the meantime, Edwards says he is trying to have his Salem inventory tagged in the METRC and may request a waiver from the Department of Public Health to transfer a portion of his medical inventory to the adult program. Once these steps are completed, the clinic will request their final inspection at CCC.
"We're almost there," wrote Edwards on Tuesday.
In total, the CCC said Tuesday it has received 80 retail license applications from across the state, of which 60 are under review.
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