Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | June 24, 2019 | Worcester Business Journal 7 UniBank's team of business experts provide customized solutions that help you meet the modern-day demands of running a business. Our comprehensive suite of products and services, including our UniPay Online Payment solution, were designed to provide businesses the competitive edge needed to strategically navigate fi nancial challenges. You be you. You you. bank Member FDIC/Member DIF Contact one of our experts or visit unibank.com to fi nd out more. Sean O'Connell VP, Director of Business & Consumer Banking 508.849.4346 Robert E. Paulsen, Jr. SVP, Senior Lending Offi cer 508.849.4335 Kristy L. Genga AVP, UniPay Business Sales Offi cer 508.849.4245 John S. Kelley VP, Senior Commercial Real Estate Lender 508.849.4325 Bill Downing (center), a long-time legal marijuana advocate and owner of CBD Please in Framingham, chats with attendees at The Business of Cannabis events on June 11. Within two years, only a handful of those stores had opened, and 47 existed in Massachusetts when two recreational dispensaries were allowed to open last November. With 19 adult-use stores open and hundreds more in the pipeline, prices are exorbitantly high, with an eighth ounce of marijuana in Massachusetts typically selling for at least $50, not including sales tax. In other adult-use states like Washington, prices rarely get above $40 for an eighth, but that's typically very high quality bud. In fact, some whole ounces can go for even less than that, Krane said. Achieving diversity, changing laws Krane stopped short of blaming just one person, agency or group for the slow rollout and actually commended the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission for its forward-thinking regulatory structure, which includes opportunities for microbusinesses, cra cooperatives and social equity programs to right the past wrongs of the War on Drugs. "For licensing structure alone, I think Massachusetts probably has the best of any adult-use state in the country," he said. e first two stores in Massachusetts were allowed to open on the same Tuesday in November. One of those stores, Cultivate, is in Leicester just off of Route 9. at could have been planned better, joked Kay Doyle, a Cannabis Control Commission member. "If you're going to do this ... don't hand out the first license on the only road that accesses the local Walmart on the same week as Black Friday," Doyle said. For a few weeks, the small town struggled to keep up with the increased traffic and long lines outside of the dispensary located in a residential area. According to Doyle, a regulatory expert who spent time with the state Department of Public Health and worked as primary counsel for the medical marijuana program, the adult-use program was meant to be a safe, equitable, innovative and environmentally friendly industry. "at all adds up to sustainable opportunity," she said. "We have to plan to make sure we don't get in the way of business and do it in a way that allows it to grow in a way that still serves those fundamental principles." e state has loy diversity goals, but the industry so far is dominated by white men. According to the CCC's own data, 73.6% of the state's marijuana workforce is white and 67% are men. Of businesses with either provisional or final approval from the CCC, 12% are owned by someone who identifies as either a minority, woman, veteran, or a member of the LGBTQ community. Startup costs for the cannabis industry can be prohibitive unless a firm has connections to deep-pocketed investors, but the CCC is hoping to open up the industry to a wide variety of business owners with social con- sumption and delivery businesses soon to come. Per state law, municipalities not wanting cannabis businesses in town can vote to ban the industry, but cities and towns have to do the opposite to allow social consumption businesses in. Doyle defended the CCC's strict regulators around security, which can prove costly, but conceded some laws or regulations, like the social con- sumption part, will need to be tweaked as the industry grows into itself. "We do need to fix that so people can get this going," she said. W Kris Krane, co-founder and president, 4Front Ventures

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