More than two years after Massachusetts voters chose to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana, the state's first two pot shops — one in Northampton and the other in Leicester — are opening tomorrow.
Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz will be the first recreational customer at the New England Treatment Access dispensary, although he says he'll save the chocolate bar he buys for posterity, rather than consuming it.
“I do think that as a supporter, a longtime supporter both of legalization of medical marijuana and as a supporter of adult use marijuana, I think it sends and important message that I be the first person to make that purchase,” said Narkewicz, a veteran who says he's heard stories on how marijuana has helped other veterans once their service has ended.
“Obviously I’m proud of my service as a veteran, but I’m more excited that my fellow veterans who need access to this, whether it’s for PTSD or traumatic brain injury or depression or anxiety, this has been life changing for them,” he added, noting that nearly 70-percent of Northampton voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana.
At a press conference at the dispensary, Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper noted how much has changed in the more than 20 years she's been in law enforcement. Kasper says this is part of a larger cultural shift regarding drug use.
“When I came on the job, needles were an arrestable offense," Kasper said. "Marijuana was an arrestable offense. So we’ve seen a lot of things change. Even the stigma around addiction has changed quite a bit. So it’s been a metamorphosis for policing in general, for us to keep up with the changes in laws, and kind of to readjust the we way we think about some of these things.”
One of Kasper's main concerns for tomorrow was managing the traffic that's expected from all the customers looking to buy marijuana.
Gov. Charlie Baker also said one of his biggest concerns tomorrow are the roads.
Baker made it clear if people are using recreation marijuana, they should not be driving.
“There’s Uber and Lyft for a reason," Baker said. "There’s public transportation for a reason. And people should be very focused on making sure they don’t wind up in a bad place, behind the wheel of a car.”
NETA's Amanda Rositano says the start of legal pot sales in Massachusetts is symbolic of a large movement. “This is really about acknowledging that there is now a place for cannabis in our society, and that place is no longer in the shadows.”
In Leicester on Monday, members of the Cannabis Control Commission toured Cultivate, the second store opening tomorrow.
Sam Barber, president of the business, lead the commissioners into a brightly lit room full of about 220 marijuana plants. “This room smells a little different," he said.
Each plant has a tag that allows the company and regulators to track the plant through the whole process, he said.
In the kitchen they found a worker making individual gummy candies with a symbol noting the edible is made with THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, which is required by state regulations. The idea is to let people know what's in the candy so school officials, nurses and others can tell if students are ingesting marijuana.
According to a Cultivate Holdings spokesperson, the first recreational purchase at their store will be made by Iraq veteran Stephen Mandile, who founded the organizations Veterans for Alternative Healing.
As the stores open, everything from drinks and lotions to highly concentrated forms of the drug will be on sale, legally, in Massachusetts. Both shops plan to open at 8 a.m. tomorrow.
