Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com • Worcester Business Journal • 2021 Economic Forecast 31 YOU CAN DO BIG THINGS BORROW UP TO 100% OF YOUR HOME'S VALUE WITH ADVANTAGE EQUITY LOANS BY SCU 888.599.2265 | southbridgecu.com We've got you. Membership to SCU requires a one-time dividend-earning deposit of $5.00 in a prime share account. Equal Housing Opportunity. Equal Opportunity Employer. Federally insured by NCUA. NMLS #616673. The impossible challenge of keeping cannabis local Originally published July 6. Read the full version on WBJournal.com. For the average Central Massachu- setts consumer, it may not be immedi- ately obvious the artisanally decorated cannabis retailer in their quiet mill town is owned by a multi-million dol- lar, multi-state company whose CEO lives on the other side of the country. Shops skew small, have limited parking space and, as quotas detailed in their licensing applications promise, are typically operated in large part by locals from the surrounding towns. eir storefront signage, as is oen mandated by the towns they're located in, is understated, and oentimes, their buildings are nestled away from view. In a state where the oldest adult-use retail shop is less than two years old, name recognition is necessarily low. In other words, a lot of these brand names feel brand new, even if they aren't. From both a policy and logistical perspective, this makes sense. Massachusetts requires medical cannabis facilities be vertically integrated, meaning a company has to single-handedly grow, manufacture and manage its own retail operation. Setting up a medical shop requires major access to capital, while traditional bank loans remain unavailable, due to the industry being federally illegal. is leg up has resulted in large, deep-pocketed cannabis companies cornering the market and expanding their operations as locally-owned businesses scramble to catch up, and at the same time is pushing out entrepreneurs of color. Top manufacturing stories from 2020 Mass. surpasses $1B in marijuana sales Originally published Nov. 3. See full version on WBJournal.com. Cannabis retailers in Massachusetts have now cumulatively passed $1 billion in gross sales, the state's Cannabis Control Commission announced on Tuesday. e state officially passed that benchmark at the end of day on ursday, two years aer the first recreational dispensary opened on Nov. 20, 2018. Some 84 cannabis retailers have received commence-operation notices from the CCC. Additionally, 688 related marijuana establishments have received licensure. Slavery's legacy in the Central Mass. economy Originally published Sept. 28. See full version on WBJournal.com. e modern Massachusetts economy has been growing for 400 years, since settlers first landed in Plymouth in 1620. And for 245 of those 400 years – more than 60% – the Massachusetts economy was tied to the legal institution of slavery, first as Massachusetts legalized and profited from slavery. en, aer Massachusetts abolished the practice, businesses still benefited through the Civil War from the use of free labor in the American South, particularly surrounding the proliferation of slave-grown cotton and its use by mills in the Blackstone Valley. "What we don't realize is the extent to which those choices that manufacturers made and consumers made affected slavery," said Calvin Schermerhorn, an historian at Arizona State. "It wasn't just a Southern phenomenon." Enslaved women and children in a cotton field in the South Kevin MacConnell (left) and Tim Phillips, founder of Uxbridge cannabis microbusiness Yamna W PHOTO/MONICA BUSCH PHOTO/COURTESY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

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