10 Things You Need to Know About Marijuana Dispensaries in MA

Friday, July 03, 2015
GoLocalWorcester News Team

June 29 marked the official date in the state of Massachusetts to apply as a Registered Marijuana Dispensary in the Commonwealth and that's good news for the nearly 20,000 certified patients and 10,000 registered medical marijuana use patients. 

As GoLocalWorcester reported last month, Governor Charlie Baker approved a one-time, temporary waiver to allow the first medical marijuana dispensary to sell its product.

“Patients have waited to access marijuana for medical purposes for far too long,”said Governor Baker. “This waiver will allow industry laboratories a little more time to reach full operation while providing safe amounts of medical marijuana for qualifying patients who need it.”

SEE SLIDES BELOW: 10 Things You Need to Know About Marijuana Dispensaries in MA

Alternative Group Therapy in Salem was the first marijuana dispensary granted the waiver. 

The waiver allows a three month period for ATG to dispense only a maximum of 4.23 ounces of marijuana to qualifty patients for a 60-day supply.  “We carefully considered the initial testing results and we will review the standards going forward,” said Dr. Monica Bharel, Commissioner of the Department of Public Health. “We believe these levels provide for patient health protections while allowing the first dispensary to distribute marijuana for medical use as voted on in 2012.”

As of July 1, there are only four dispensaries approved to grow marijuana for medical use. Beyond AGT, two other dispensaries are in the process of being able to sell - In Good Health, Inc. of Brockton and New England Treatment Access of Northampton.

Worcester County Gets No Marijuana Love

Of the 15 certified registered marijuana dispensaries in the state, only one is located in Central Massachusetts. Milfrod Medicinals, Inc received its provisional certificate from the state over a year ago. 

"“The limited amount of license granted by the Department of Public Health has left a huge area of Worcester County underrepresented,” Executive Director of Massachusetts Patients Advocacy Alliance, Matthew Allen told GoLocalWorcester. “The DPH says that there will be dispensaries within thirty miles, but that is based on a radius and not travel time. Some of these dispensaries could be as far as an hour or two away from patients based on traffic which does not provide patients with easy access to the medicine that they deserve.”

The license in Worcester – which was initially granted to Good Chemistry of Massachusetts Inc. Good Chemistry said that they sent letters to and met with Mayor Joe Petty, City Manager Ed Augustus, and Police Chief Gary Gemme., but there application was later denied because Good Chemistry never met with Gemme.

GoLocalWorcester has put together a list of ten things that you need to know regarding marijuana dispensaries in Massachusetts. See slides below.