Worcester Business Journal

30 Worcester Business Journal | October 25, 2021 | wbjournal.com F A C T B O O K M A N U F A C T U R I N G A dult-use cannabis retailers in Massachusetts amassed more than $2 billion in lifetime sales by the end of August this year, signaling an eager, and likely growing, consumer base. And despite persistent, bad-faith tropes, and oen racist stereotypes that have long dominated mainstream cannabis culture, there is no uniform customer. Alex Mazin, president and CEO of Bud's Goods & Provisions, which operates dispensaries in Worcester and Abington, said asking who buys cannabis is kind of like asking who buys alcohol in a liquor store. "e only common characteristic is that they're 21 and older," Mazin said. e adult-use cannabis market in Massachusetts has been operating for three years as of this November, and according to data from the state Cannabis Control Commission, year- to-date sales in-state surpassed $1 billion as of Oct. 14, doubling the clip of sales from a year prior. In that time, industry stakeholders in Central Massachusetts say access to Who buys weed? Nearly three years online, the Central Mass. cannabis market caters to a wide variety of consumers BY MONICA BENEVIDES WBJ Senior Staff Writer Central Mass. cannabis business types Business type Central Mass. licenses Marijuana retailer 58 Marijuana cultivator 38 Marijuana product manufacturer 26 Independent testing laboratory 6 Marijuana microbusiness 2 Marijuana transporter 1 the legal market, as well as the wide variety of cannabis delivery methods that came with it, has helped reduce stigma and introduce – or reintroduce – consumers to the plant's use. As the state's market grows, cannabis brands are working to differentiate themselves from both each other and the country's other large legal market on the West Coast. Flower trends Cannabis flower and its more convenient cousin, the pre-roll, dominate Massachusetts sales, according to CCC, which tracks sale information. Collectively, they comprised 58% of sales in the week ending Oct. 10. In second were edibles at 19% and vape products at 14%. Flower appears to remain king in Worcester, in particular, said Beth Waterfall, principal at Beth Waterfall Creative and executive director of the Norwell-based Elevate Northeast. Waterfall works in and around the Central Massachusetts cannabis market, either through marketing or nonprofit work aimed at changing perceptions around cannabis more broadly. In her work in the city of Worcester, Waterfall said dispensaries report steady and enthusiastic cannabis sales. at trend seems to be driven at least in part by a demand for quick-use products in urban environments, where customers want a cannabis product they can consume easily as they travel between destinations. Pre- rolls at Good Chemistry, near the Polar Park baseball stadium, are particularly popular on game days, for example, she said. Aside from continuing to prefer flower, the cannabis industry as a whole appears to be skewing toward more widely popular wellness trends. "People just want to feel better now," Waterfall said. "e pandemic has been depressing, and it's been hard. ere's this plant-based product that's available in all these different forms and delivery methods." She pointed to discourse around alcohol consumption during the pandemic, and said some users ultimately turned away from it in lieu of the more gentle cannabis option. A survey conducted by e Harris Poll on behalf of Curaleaf Holdings, Inc., a cannabis company based in Wakefield and which does business in Central Massachusetts, including operating a dispensary in Oxford, found 45% of adult cannabis users reported replacing alcohol with cannabis during the pandemic. at survey, whose results came out in December of last year, reported 33% of adult-use consumers said they preferred cannabis to alcohol. "Alcohol's a depressant, and if you get in the habit of having a couple glasses of wine in a day, that's going to make you feel bad, or you're going to have hangovers," Waterfall said. at's not the case with cannabis, which generally leaves little to no trace (Top) Stephen Mandile was the first Mass. buyer of legal adult-use cannabis when Cultivate opened in 2018. (Above) Alex Mazin, CEO of Bud's Goods; and Patrik Jonsson, regional president at Curaleaf Source: Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission PHOTO/ZACHARY COMEAU

• Cover