FRAMINGHAM — Three Framingham adult-use marijuana businesses have opened their doors and three more are on the way.
Currently, Nova Farms and Cultivate operate on Worcester Road (Route 9) and Temescal Wellness is on Cochituate Road (Route 30). Three other businesses are on their way to opening — but it may be a while.
“This is a new industry that was previously illegal, and it’s highly regulated, and so for good reasons there is a very onerous process, both at the state level and at the local level, to vet out these businesses that are going to be operating in our communities,” said Thatcher Kezer, Framingham’s chief operating officer.
Union Twist, Innovative Flower and Life Essence (which was acquired by Trulieve) all secured host community agreements with Framingham. Each has a license pending with the Cannabis Control Commission, a statewide organization that oversees licensing and operations for marijuana products.
A host community agreement is a requirement that each operator must secure with the municipality in which it intends to operate before the business can receive a license from the CCC.
“Marijuana licenses come from the state, and the municipalities play a partial role in their approval process,” Kezer said. “Most always, everything’s good. We sign off… there’s a 60-day clock. Sometimes we just let the clock run, which defaults to they’re approved.”
Kezer said Union Twist, which will be located on Route 9, has all its boxes checked, and the city has informed the CCC that the business is fully compliant and ready to go.
“I don’t know when the Cannabis Control Commission is going to finalize their license, but it’s expected to be imminent,” Kezer said. “We’ve not received that certification for Life Essence or for Innovative Flower as of yet — so what’s left to be done? I don’t know, because that’s up that state commission.”
It’s not atypical for applications, and the final steps of those applications, to take a while — Union Twist received its license from the state in November. Certain applications, such as those for medical marijuana, women-owned businesses and applicants participating in a social equity program, are prioritized over general adult-use licenses.
Why six?
Currently, Framingham can only have six recreational sales operations.
The cap was calculated based on the number of establishments that sell alcohol not to be consumed on site in the municipality, places like liquor stores. Only Framingham voters can decrease the number of HCAs for adult-use businesses, but City Council has the power to increase it if they choose, Kezer said.
Municipalities have a lot of freedom to apply terms and provisions for HCAs, according to the Cannabis Control Commission.
For example, Framingham took advantage of the option to add a local sales tax: 3% of adult-use retail sales go to the city and there’s a 3% impact fee that goes toward things like public safety personnel overtime and the costs associated with municipal inspections.
Other categories of marijuana operations, such as cultivators, testing laboratories or delivery services, are not capped. But each business must apply for a separate HCA for each one.
“If you are going to apply and operate in more than one category in Framingham, the way we did it is each one is a separate HCA,” Kezer said. “You may drop one line of business and keep the other, so we wanted to keep it separate.”
Lillian Eden can be reached at 617-459-6409 or leden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LillianWEden.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Three recreational pot businesses await approval to open in Framingham
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