Boston’s first dispensary will open its doors today, with more than 200 patients pre-registering with Patriot Care to access the shop, the Boston Globe reports.
“We’re proud to be here,” Robert Mayerson, CEO of Patriot Care, said in the report. “We’re taking a space vacant for 10 years and bringing economic vitality back to it.”
The dispensary, located on Milk Street, is the seventh to open in the state, and is the second for Patriot Care, who opened their first location in Lowell in February.
The shop opens its doors despite threats from two members of the City Council for a November referendum that would ban dispensaries in the city. Boston Mayor Martin Walsh has been a vocal opponent of the cannabis industry but promised to uphold the 2012 law.
“I am pleased that over the past few months, Patriot Care has worked closely with the administration to address many of the neighborhood concerns,” he said in a statement.
The statement did not outline the so-called host agreement between Patriot Care and the city, which has become commonplace for dispensaries in Massachusetts. Such contracts usually allow the dispensary to open, but with municipalities often asking for a percentage of sales and charitable donations. The mayor’s office also declined to produce a copy of the agreement.
Mayerson also did not offer details of that agreement, but indicated that the company has donated basement space to Compassionate Care ALS, a nonprofit that helps patients with neurodegenerative disease. The company also promised not to sell recreational cannabis even if voters approve legalization in November.
Patriot Care expects to serve about 150 per day at the Boston shop.
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