Worcester Business Journal

4 Worcester Business Journal | January 9, 2017 | wbjournal.com C E N T R A L M AS S I N B R I E F Could Mass. pot delays lead to prohibition? E ven though recreational mari- juana has been legal in Massachusetts since Dec. 15, the move by legislators at the end of the year to delay the opening of pot retail stores – coupled with two moves on the federal level – has left the mari- juana business industry concerned the long wait will add up to the drug being made illegal again. "They [cannabis industry] are para- noid, so they react to headlines," said Jeffrey Friedland, international mari- juana expert, author and blogger. Mass. lawmakers on Dec. 28 announced a six- month delay on retail sales of rec- reational cannabis, saying they required more time to work on the legalization measure. Votes by the House and Senate moved licensing of marijuana shops from Jan. 1, 2018, to July 1 of the same year. The Massachusetts move came on the heels of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's new Schedule 1 classi- fication for marijuana extracts, saying medicinally popular marijuana-based products sold by medical marijuana dis- pensaries would be considered on the same level as heroin and cocaine. Also, fueling the sudden mood swing among those in the retail pot industry is President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, Jeff Sessions, a conser- vative who has been a longtime – and V E R B A T I M Fast-tracked biopharma "We feel very very confident and strongly about the asset of LakePharma coming here and really sort of being the anchor of this continuation of the biotech park." State Rep. James O'Day (D-Worcester), on the legislature fast- tracking a land bill to get California biotechnology firm LakePharma into the new 500,000-square-foot Worcester biomanufacturing campus UMass Memorial acquisitions "That could change overnight as opportunities become apparent." Eric Dickson, UMass Memorial Health Care president and CEO, on the healthcare provider's strategic growth plan, which doesn't include specific acquisition targets at the moment Worcester artistic space "There is creativity blossoming throughout the city, and the WOOteria provides an opportunity to build on and deepen this great momentum." Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus, on the new artists collaboration space and 300-seat performance venue slated for 20 Franklin St. vocal – anti-marijuana political figure. How much recreational pot is expected to sell? Projected to reach $22 billion in sales by 2020, the cannabis industry can only speculate as to what it all these state and federal moves mean – if anything – for its grass-roots movement that doubled the ranks of fully legal states on Election Day, adding California, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts. Also, 28 states now have medical marijuana programs. Marc Shepard, co-founder of the New England Cannabis Network in Needham, sought to allay fears that Massachusetts lawmakers will be able to delay implementation of recreational marijuana indefinitely. "This is just an attempt by them to buy extra time to do the work they should have already done," Shepard said. "I'm sure they will continue to try to control the law beyond their legal right to do so, but there are plenty of smart, well-organized groups and activ- ists ready to fight them if they do. The pointless battle to [continue] prohibi- tion is over, and nothing will stop recre- ational cannabis sales in Mass. at this point." What about the DEA's new classification? As for the DEA move on cannabi- noids, Friedland is giving the agency the benefit of the doubt when it says it merely wants to track cannabinoids for research and international drug control treaties. In fact, he pointed out, scheduling of cannabinoids was two years in the mak- ing, so the move was not, in his opin- ion, a DEA shot across the bow of the industry. Moreover, Friedland said, the DEA cannot under the current budget use federal funds to go after medical mari- juana businesses. That includes those selling cannabinoids. The code "does not affect state- licensed marijuana businesses at all," Friedland said. "It really just affects the research side under real pharmaceutical research. The state-licensed regime, it has absolutely no impact on." As for the possible Sessions appoint- ment, however, Friedland said the canna- bis industry has a reason to be nervous. "He's totally clueless being from a conservative state [Alabama] as to this grassroots movement, and I think that's dangerous," he said. "Sessions could live with the concept of state-regulated medical marijuana. I don't think he or the Trump Administration want to be talked about as taking away from patients their 'medicine.'" W BY JOHN R. KELLY Special to the Worcester Business Journal Jeffrey Friedland

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