Recreational Marijuana Stores: Where To Expect Them Next

More than two years after Massachusetts voters approved recreational marijuana sales, the era of legalized recreational marijuana is upon us.

Now comes the expansion.

"I think you're going to see, every couple of weeks, a couple of new stores and not just stores, but cultivation sites and manufacturing facilities," Cannabis Control Commission Chariman Steven Hoffman said Tuesday, when the first two recreational marijuana shops on the East Coast opened in the Bay State.

Many communities have flat out said "no" to grass in their town, but others are looking to cash in on the payday a pot shop brings. Leicester and Northampton, home to Cultivate and New England Treatment Access, respectively, will split more than $66,000 for just the first five days, according to data released by the CCC Tuesday.

The cash comes with a price - at least in the early going.

Residents in Leicester gathered at an emergency meeting Monday night to describe the "hell" that has befallen their small unassuming town since Cultivate opened, the Boston Globe reported. Among the complaints were seemingly endless traffic and, for lack of a better word, stoners.

"We don't expect this, obviously, to last forever," Leicester Town Administrator David Genereux said at the meeting. He said once the CCC opens up more shops, fewer people will be making the pot pilgrimage to Leicester and Northampton.

>>>Related: Massachusetts Gets First Whiff Of Recreational Marijuana

Pharmacannis Massachusetts in Wareham could be the first release valve in Eastern Mass., and within weeks Salem could be home to the first pot shop on the North Shore when Alternative Therapies Group, Inc. opens. I.N.S.A., Inc. in the Western Mass. city of Easthampton has also received a so-called final license from the CCC.

On the Tuesday Cultivate and New England Treatment Access opened, the CCC also approved provisional licenses for three more retailers: Atlantic Medicinal Partners, Inc. in Fitchburg, Good Chemistry of Massachusetts, Inc. in Worcester, and Sanctuary Medicinals, Inc. in Gardner, as well as four provisional cultivation licenses and five provisional product manufacturer licenses.

Dozens of other companies are eager to take the clientele. As of last Tuesday, the CCC has received requests for different licenses - including retail - from around 100 companies. You can see the list below.

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Photo by Jimmy Bentley, Patch

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Materials from the State House News Service was used in the report

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