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Boston’s first cannabis store set to open Monday

Cannabis

Rejoice, Boston! The wait is over.

According to Leafy, More than a year after the first recreational cannabis stores opened in Massachusetts—and more than three years after the state legalized adult-use marijuana—Boston’s first legal shop, Pure Oasis, is set to open this week.

The Dorchester shop, at 430 Blue Hill Ave., is expected to welcome its first customers at 11 a.m. Monday morning.

Pure Oasis has an additional distinction: It’s the first store to receive a license through Massachusetts’ Economic Empowerment Program, which provides support for communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.

“The war on drugs has been harsh on our community in so many ways,” Pure Oasis co-owner Kobie Evans said at a recent press conference. “I am very pleased we can take an important step forward to bring cannabis out of the shadows and share the benefits with our customers.”

Progressive program, slow rollout

When Massachusetts legalized marijuana in 2016, it became the first state to include a plan to explicitly assist minority-owned businesses, through the Cannabis Control Commission’s Economic Empowerment Program. Other legal states have rolled out similar programs retroactively, but Massachusetts was the first to incorporate it into the state’s regulatory structure from the start.

The program has been criticized by some for its slow rollout. Others have questioned its efficacy.

“Statewide, the voters have clearly called for legalization to be carried forth in a manner that promotes equity, but on the municipal level, from Brockton to Cambridge to Western Massachusetts, equity is being sabotaged,” Real Action for Cannabis Equity co-founder Richard Harding told the Associated Press last year. “Fairness is not being achieved in the process, and it is certainly not being achieved in the result.”

Still only 30 stores statewide

As of this February, only ten Economic Empowerment businesses had been granted provisional licenses out of the 260 licenses granted statewide. For context, there are currently 30 stores open around the state, and only one in the Boston suburbs.

Beyond license application fees—which can run up to $60,000 and were recently eliminated for equity applicants—a major sticking point for aspiring entrepreneurs has been the Host Community Agreements (HCAs). A cannabis company must complete an HCA with its local municipality before the business can be approved for a license. State law allows a municipality to tax a business’s gross sales, up to 3% over five years.

Read More at source: Leafy

Image Source: Leafy