Posted on 02/13/2021 12:21:21 PM PST by NobleFree
LEE, Mass. (WROC) — If you leave the Mass Pike not far in from the New York state border and swing by Canna Provisions directly off the exit you’ll find what looks like an artisan shop that’s been welcoming tourists to the Berkshires for decades.
That shop, though, opened less than three years ago and what they sell wasn’t legal in Massachusetts until 2018.
Canna Provisions in Lee, MA is happily selling marijuana.
”This is all grown and manufactured right here in Massachusetts,” Meg Sanders, Canna Provisions CEO, said while gesturing to table topped with various THC-infused products.
While New York State appears to move closer to legalizing adult-use cannabis, Lee stands as an example of what the transition might look like.
First, the money.
Promises of increased tax revenue have been kept, at least here and at least for now.
“Business is phenomenal, I mean it has been gangbusters since we opened,” Sanders said adding they’ve paid tax on millions of dollars of revenue.
The traffic, at least initially, proved to be an annoyance for some locals, but Emmy Davis, who runs Starving Artist Cafe, says the dispensary is now largely seen as just another business.
“At first it was hard because the grocery store is past the pot shop so you had to drive by and there was a lot of traffic, but it’s kind of thinned out and it’s been pretty good,” Davis said.
Lee Police Chief Craig Desantis had his doubts about legalization in general, and still does, but when asked whether he’s seen more cases of impaired driving, he said:
“I don’t want to speak for other communities, but I haven’t seen an uptick in our town, but it’s a real concern. Officers can use assessments, but it’s not the same, the courts don’t recognize those assessments to be the same as field sobriety tests related to alcohol.”
While Canna Provisions is the only marijuana game in town in Lee, there are around 100 other dispensaries now open around the commonwealth with many of them owned and run by small entrepreneurs.
“The state didn’t create a competitive licensing scheme so there’s no limit at the state level to licenses and what they did is they left that up to local municipalities to figure out how they wanted this to be in existence in their town even if they wanted it to be in existence in their town,” Sanders said.
So now a product you buy at Canna Provisions in Lee, MA is very much legal, but drive a few miles west over the New York State border and it’s very much not.
But that doesn’t stop a lot of New Yorkers from doing it.
Resident FR addict pushing his agenda. Work up a well written, lengthy response, please. I’ve had your personal responses on ignore for ......... ever?
But "conservatives" will soon be addicted to the tax revenue stream.
It might be a coincidence, but I noticed a decline in my neighborhood beginning about the time that my state (Washington ) legalized marijuana. More homelessness, garbage on the streets, abandoned shopping carts lining the streets, crazy people shouting at the sky, etc.
Thank you for posting.
At least since I started calling you on your repeated lie that there are FReepers who support abortion and open borders.
Keep the people medicated, stupid and ignorant.
Then it must need fewer - so you must support banning the deadly drug alcohol. Right?
Legal alcohol hasn't kept them that way - so why would legal marijuana?
"Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
Your Logic chain is broken.
Canada has had a fairly smooth transition.
I don’t like drugs, but we can’t stop people. The only thing we can do is minimize the harm by ensuring it’s just marijuana and not anything laced with fentanyl or stuff.
Then it must need fewer - so you must support banning the deadly drug alcohol. Right?
Your Logic chain is broken.
So you claim, with no supporting argument - and I don't think I'll hold my breath waiting for one.
I don’t like drugs, but we can’t stop people. The only thing we can do is minimize the harm by ensuring it’s just marijuana and not anything laced with fentanyl or stuff.
Evidence? Logic? The WODgod is not pleased.
Killer Kuomo on Dope on TV?
Just what New York needs. More decadence and birth defects. Hint: Pregnant women who use drugs produce babies with scrambled brains.
So you admit that it is a poison and yet you endorse it?
Including the legal drug alcohol.
Women who before legalization were responsible enough to not use marijuana, will after legalization remain responsible enough to not use while pregnant.
Have you been to Colorado?
When I lived in Chicago, a “dispensary” opened up just down the block. There were often people hanging around outside or waiting to be let in. Without exception they were all scruffy-looking young and middle-aged men who should have been at work. I never once saw anyone older or hobbled or who otherwise looked like they needed marijuana for its alleged medicinal properties.
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