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Cannabis

    CANINE ALERT

    Cannabis Toxicity in Dogs Is Increasing on Cape

    Even small amounts can harm dogs that find and ingest it

    By

    TRURO — After a morning walk on Ballston Beach over the July 4th weekend, Heather Murray noticed her four-year-old Portuguese water dog, Maple, behaving strangely.

    Heather Murray’s Portuguese water dogs at Ballston Beach in Truro. Maple, 4, has a ball that Scout, 2, clearly wants. (Photos by Heather Murray)

    “She was just sort of staring past me while her head was wobbling,” said Murray. Her dog seemed unable to focus, and Murray worried she might be poisoned.

    Her vet’s office in Wellfleet was closed, so Murray drove Maple to Cape Cod Veterinary Specialists in Dennis. Maple’s body temperature was two degrees below the normal range for a dog, and she was shying away from sudden movements. Dr. Kelsey McKenna determined that Maple had cannabis toxicity as a result of ingesting marijuana.

    Dogs’ bodies process cannabis differently than humans’ do. Even at low doses, cannabis can cause dogs to leak urine, become sensitive to sudden movements, experience nausea, and walk “like a drunken person,” said Dr. Sadie Hutchings, veterinarian at the Veterinary Wellness Center of Provincetown.

    At high doses, dogs can experience temporary paralysis and become very cold or hypothermic. There have been cases in which pets died from cannabis toxicity, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, apparently because vomit entered the lungs.

    McKenna said that she has treated cases of canine cannabis toxicity every year since 2015, when she began working at Cape Cod Veterinary Specialists, but that the number of cases has increased dramatically in the last five years.

    “In the summertime, we can see anywhere from 2 to 10 cases a week of cannabis toxicity,” said McKenna, whereas five years ago, it was more like two cases a month.

    The animal poison control center run by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has also reported a large increase in calls related to pets consuming cannabis since 2019.

    “It happens in pretty much every town, even in towns where you wouldn’t expect there to be marijuana on the street,” said McKenna. Cannabis “is just so ubiquitous now that every town in Massachusetts has a dispensary,” she said.

    Hutchings said that people usually have no idea where their dog found cannabis. From the discarded stub of a joint to stray gummies, cookies, or tablets, nearly everything can be found on Cape Cod’s streets and beaches, and dogs are expert seekers.

    McKenna said she has seen many cases in which poisoning occurred while dogs were home alone, often because edibles or even ashtrays were not stored safely out of reach.

    On that July 4th weekend at Ballston Beach, Murray saw Maple rolling in something right next to the embers of a bonfire, she said. A discarded roach or dropped edible would have been inconspicuous next to the flotsam that already fills beaches.

    “Fortunately, cannabis toxicity is one of the more forgiving toxicities,” McKenna said. In most cases it resolves on its own.

    At the clinic, treatment for cannabis toxicity includes oral or intravenous hydration, treatment for nausea, careful monitoring of body temperature, and a calm, quiet space to recover.

    McKenna said that, for dogs, the experience often amounts to “a really bad trip.” Maple was back to her normal dog self the next day, Murray said.

    “I’m sure nobody wants to get a dog sick,” she said. “If you drop an edible, pick it up and dispose of it.”

    HOMEGROWN

    Aging Gardeners’ New Favorite Crop: Cannabis

    Elders find fun, community, and pain relief in growing and smoking weed

    By

    WELLFLEET — The Outer Cape is full of children of the ’60s. Some of those who have green thumbs have found in their home gardens a new way of reconnecting with their roots: by growing their own marijuana.

    GREEN ECONOMY

    State Will Cut Towns’ Cannabis Receipts in Half

    Three-percent ‘community impact fees’ are slashed

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — A law that passed the state legislature almost unanimously in July and was signed by Gov. Charlie Baker in August will cut in half the revenue from marijuana sales that come to town governments across the state.

    The law leaves in place the local option tax on marijuana, which is capped at 3 percent of total sales. But it, in effect, removes the “community impact fee” that the Outer Cape towns — along with nearly every town in the state that hosts a dispensary — had set at 3 percent of sales.

    The law still allows for impact fees, but now they must be shown to be “reasonably related” to the actual costs imposed on a town by the existence of the dispensary, such as police or fire calls or traffic management. Those costs must be tracked and submitted to the dispensary annually and can be contested in court, with the town covering the legal fees of the marijuana business if the impact fee is found to be unwarranted.

    Additionally, all impact fees must end after the dispensary’s eighth year of operation, and impact fees cannot be defined as a percentage of the business’s sales. Requirements for donations to local charities, often set at one percent of total sales, were also eliminated by the new law.

    The Mass. Municipal Association lobbied against these provisions, arguing that more than 1,000 host community agreements across the state would be affected. The MMA asked the legislature and then the governor to insert language that would allow existing five-year host community agreements to stand until their original expiration date, which would allow the 3-percent-of-sales formula to continue for a few more years. Neither the legislature nor the governor agreed, and the law passed unanimously in the state Senate and by a vote of 153 to 2 in the House.

    The marijuana industry’s complaint has been that the impact fees were being abused. Lawsuits were filed by dispensary owners against local governments in Haverhill and Pittsfield seeking to overturn their community impact fees, with the dispensary owners arguing that the local option tax was the town’s rightful share and “impact fees” were being assessed beyond the conceivable negative impact of any one retail business.

    In Provincetown, Curaleaf has paid $372,000 in impact fees since it opened in February 2020.  B/well has paid $186,000, Hennep has paid $60,000, Heal has paid $6,600, and Haven, which was the last of the five local pot shops to open, has paid $2,600. These figures do not include payments for the second quarter of 2022, or for the two months since then.

    For town governments, the change will be twofold: it will cut the incoming revenues from marijuana sales in half, and it will end the need for town governments to find a “reasonably related” way to spend the money. Provincetown has discussed spending those funds on its mental health plan (see related story on page A10).

    Provincetown received $374,554 in community impact fees from total marijuana sales in fiscal 2021, which ran from July 2020 through June 2021. The Independent is still awaiting the town’s figures on impact fees that cover sales in the last quarter of fiscal 2022, which ended June 30, but based on the year’s sales tax figures, the impact fees should total around $300,000 for that year.

    Impact fee revenue could continue for one or two more quarters while the state Cannabis Control Commission establishes a timeline for revising the host community agreements to conform with the new law. But it’s clear the impact fees will be dramatically reduced before long.

    The local option tax will remain, and use of that money is unrestricted. Provincetown took in $312,000 in local option marijuana taxes in fiscal 2021 and $294,000 in fiscal 2022, all of which went into the general fund.

    Lower Expectations

    Karen Nash, owner of the B/well dispensary, said that the total volume of pot sales in Provincetown — around $10 million per year — is smaller than she had expected. Competition from stores in Wellfleet and Eastham has mattered.

    “My projections before I opened factored in six dispensaries,” Nash said. “The total Provincetown market is about half of what I thought it would be.”

    The sixth Provincetown dispensary, Green Harbor at 79 Shank Painter Road, has had a license for two years but still hasn’t opened. There are now three shops open in Wellfleet and two in Eastham, plus another one on the way in Orleans, according to Nash. People who were driving to Provincetown for legal pot can now shop closer to home.

    The bottlenecks that the state had been experiencing in cultivation, production, and testing have all eased significantly, Nash said. She has put her planned production facility on Court Street on hold.

    “There are so many more cultivators and manufacturers online now,” said Nash. “Before it was ‘If you have gummies, we’ll buy them,’ but now we can pick and choose, curate a menu, because there’s so many more providers.

    “There’s even white-label companies now, so I can bring my formulation to a manufacturer, they’ll make it for me, and I can have it branded B/well,” said Nash.

    With the pressure to integrate vertically having eased, Nash is looking at horizontal moves — opening other retail outlets in Massachusetts and possibly in New Jersey and New York, which recently legalized recreational use.

    Andrew Koudijs, owner of Hennep, has expanded his store into the adjacent retail space to help create a better customer experience, he said. He is also looking forward to the opening of his cultivation project in Franklin next spring, so he can sell his own line of products.

    “If we all have the same product, then what’s the point” of having so many outlets, Koudijs said. “Having our own products will be a differentiator.”

    He also said the margins in his business are smaller than people imagine. “We can’t deduct a lot of our business expenses — only cost of goods sold — when it comes to state and corporate taxes,” said Koudijs. “A lot of people have the conception that these stores rake in money, but it’s pretty far from the truth.”

    Both Nash and Koudijs said that the demise of the 3-percent impact fee would help them and their competitors.

    “The way it was designed, it was for impacts, like if we closed down the road for a delivery or something,” Koudijs said. “It turned into a revenue generator for the towns across Massachusetts, so that’s why they tweaked it.”

    GROWING PAINS

    Out There Grown Is Out of Pot Farm Plan in Truro

    Farmer Stephanie Rein says she does not have the resources for a legal battle

    By

    TRURO — Stephanie Rein, a select board member and co-owner of Out There Grown, has withdrawn her application for a cannabis farm on Old Bridge Road, giving in to pressure from her neighbors.

    Out There Grown and Pure Joy Farm, both members of the cannabis-growing High Dune Craft Cooperative, had applied for site plan approval from the Truro Planning Board for an ambitious proposal calling for both indoor and outdoor growing areas, two sheds for drying, two trailers for storage, and a commercial kitchen in an existing house where the cannabis would be processed into a variety of infused products.

    Farmer and educator Stephanie Rein sells salad greens to Craig Milan at the Truro Farmers’ Market. She says she cannot afford the legal expenses involved in fighting those who oppose the craft cannabis operation she has been working on for six years. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    While the growing and processing were to take place at 23 Old Bridge Road, the adjacent property at 21 Old Bridge Road was needed to meet the town’s minimum lot size of 1.5 acres and provide access to number 23.

    Both properties are owned by Debra McCulloch Hopkins, who is a principal in Pure Joy Farm.

    Hopkins will move forward alone with a more modest proposal that won’t involve growing. Rein and her husband, Arthur Bosworth, who live less than a mile away from the grow site on Holsbery Road, were going to cultivate the marijuana at 23 Old Bridge Road.

    Hopkins now plans to use an existing kitchen to create cannabis-infused products, said her attorney, Michael Fee. He asked the planning board at its June 8 meeting to give her about two months to tweak the proposal and meet with neighbors. The hearing was continued until Aug. 10.

    Rein leveled some harsh criticism at the Old Bridge Road neighbors when she withdrew her application.

    “It appears many of my neighbors want to live in a vacation retirement community with no opportunity for any local economic development,” she said.

    Rein said she is not only a small cannabis farmer but is also an educator, organic farmer, and select board member, as well as a property manager and owner of a housecleaning business.

    “I wear all these hats to afford to live here and contribute to my community,” Rein said.

    She told opponents of the cannabis proposal that their objections were unfounded and based on “fear-mongering and a lack of consideration for the lives of your neighbors.”

    Odor was the chief concern, she said, adding, “The cannabis grown today smells more like blueberries, or more of an earthy, savory smell.”

    To neighbors’ complaints that a marijuana farm would draw potential intruders who would find security at the operation too tight to penetrate and in frustration would break into other homes in the neighborhood, Rein said, “To steal your DVD player from 1991?”

    Even though she had been working on the proposal for a cannabis farm for more than six years, Rein said she had to withdraw her application because she didn’t have the financial means for a legal battle.

    “Our neighbors have made it quite clear they will oppose this project at all costs and will use their superior financial resources to drag this out indefinitely,” she said.

    Several Old Bridge Road residents had submitted letters of opposition to the planning board. Diane and James Hirshberg, who live in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. and own the house at 14 Old Bridge Road, wrote that the road to the farm was a private way that couldn’t handle the kind of traffic they believed would be generated by the cannabis business.

    “Our attorneys feel that it is settled law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that this increased traffic would constitute an ‘overburden of easement’ as the intention of the easement was solely for residential use,” the Hirshbergs’ letter stated. “A consortium of abutters and neighbors with whom we have spoken all agree to pursue this avenue” to halt plans for a marijuana facility.

    The High Dune Craft Cooperative includes four farmers who are licensed by the Mass. Cannabis Control Commission as a craft marijuana cooperative, which allows for cultivation, processing, packaging, and branding of products but no retail sales. Rein remains a member of the cooperative but has withdrawn from this particular proposal.

    CANNABUSINESS

    Truro Farmers Offer Plan for New Cannabis Facility

    Neighbors on Old Bridge Road worry about smells and intruders

    By

    TRURO — Abutters of a proposed recreational cannabis cultivation and processing facility on Old Bridge Road expressed concern at a recent planning board hearing that their properties would be engulfed in the skunky smell the plant gives off and their neighborhood might be targeted by criminals looking to steal the profitable crop.

    The proposal, submitted by Out There Grown and Pure Joy Farm, both members of the High Dune Craft Cooperative, calls for both indoor and outdoor growing areas for cannabis, two sheds for drying, two trailers for storage, and a commercial kitchen in an existing house where the cannabis would be processed into a variety of products such as oils, creams, and edibles, and then branded for sale.

    While both growing and processing would take place at 23 Old Bridge Road, the adjacent property at 21 Old Bridge will be needed to meet the town’s minimum lot size of 1.5 acres, as well as for access to number 23. The adjacent lot would also provide parking.

    Out There Grown is owned and operated by Stephanie Rein and Arthur Bosworth. Debra Hopkins is the owner of the two Old Bridge Road properties that make up the target site; she is a principal of Pure Joy Farm. The farmers plan to share a 3,600-square-foot greenhouse and outdoor growing area in an arrangement that has been approved by the state Cannabis Control Commission (CCC).

    Because it is located in a residential zone, the operation requires site plan approval from the Truro Planning Board and a special permit from the zoning board of appeals.

    On this Truro assessor’s map, 23 Old Bridge Road is blue. The business will also use the parcel to its left at number 21. The lot on the right, number 25, is vacant, but its owners are worried about having a cannabis facility next door. (Photo by Christine Legere)

    The provisional license from the CCC also allows processing marijuana not grown at the site. But attorney Michael Fee, who represents both applicants, told the planning board on March 23 that his clients do not intend to import cannabis. The facility’s purpose, Fee said, “is to process our products. The only thing we will import are the seeds.

    “The greenhouse is about as high-tech as it gets,” said Fee. It is equipped with fans and humidity control. “The configuration of the greenhouse is designed to make the airflow go with southwesterly winds,” he said, which would send odors toward 25 Old Bridge Road, currently vacant, and the National Seashore.

    Brothers David and John Wilson, who own 25 Old Bridge Road and nearby 19 Hatch Road, were concerned about those odors. John has lived at 19 Hatch since 1968. David plans to build a house at 25 Old Bridge, the brothers told the planning board. “Even if we’re not building,” John Wilson said, “it would devalue any use.”

    “The proposed greenhouse is 126 feet from the property line at 25 Old Bridge,” said David Wilson. He said he feared “armed intruders approaching from the south to rob the hash crop.”

    The Wilsons wanted the planning board to require screening on the shared lot line with the target site. Calling that idea “cart before the horse-ish,” Fee said it wasn’t appropriate to ask for screening when nothing was built at 25 Old Bridge Road yet.

    Regan McCarthy wondered how the waste would be handled. “This is all new to us,” she said.

    Marc Tarrasch, who lives at 8 Old Bridge Road, said his concern was the road. “It’s marginal,” he said. “It gets washed out in the rain. I’m worried about the wear and tear.”

    The planning board public hearing was continued to April 6 after attorney David Reid, who is representing the Wilsons, said the required legal advertising and abutters’ notice had mistakenly listed only 23 Old Bridge Road as the target site, failing to mention number 21.

    Meanwhile, Fee will put together more information on 21 Old Bridge, including plans for composting, parking, the commercial kitchen, and odor control.

    Earlier this week, Fee said in an email that he plans to resubmit the farmers’ applications with the additional information requested by the planning board on April 19. The hearings would be re-advertised and “the next substantive hearing should take place on May 18,” Fee said.

    The High Dune Cooperative, which includes four local growers, has already reached a host community agreement with Truro. That agreement provides the town with a fee equaling one percent of the operation’s gross sales in the first year, 2 percent in the second year, and 3 percent in the third.

    A second marijuana facility, called “the Hatchery,” is also in the works. It is a joint venture planned for Noons Heights Road by Zachary Ment, owner of the Piping Plover in Wellfleet, and Jonah Turner and Harlen Howard, co-owners of Eastham’s Salty Farmers.

    Earlier this week, Ment said in a phone interview that the Hatchery has just finished negotiating a host agreement with Truro. After a community outreach meeting, they will apply to the state for a provisional license, Ment said.

    Editor’s note: Because of a reporting error, an earlier version of this article, published in print on April 7, inaccurately gave the name of one of the applicants for the cannabis facility on Old Bridge Road. It is Out There Grown, not “Over There Grown.”

    CANNABUSINESS

    Dispensary Owners Now Seek to Build Grow Facility in Truro

    The canopy space is 10 times as large as in earlier plan

    By

    TRURO — The owners of cannabis dispensaries in Eastham and Wellfleet plan to build a 9,600-square-foot building to grow and manufacture marijuana products off Route 6 in North Truro, an update to an earlier proposal that would significantly expand their production space.

    The proposal is a joint venture by Zachary Ment, owner of the Piping Plover in Wellfleet, and Harlen Howard and Jonah Turner, co-owners of Salty Farmers in North Eastham. Ment, Howard, and Turner had asked earlier this year to use a 960-square-foot building at 1 Noons Heights Road to grow marijuana for their businesses.

    Ment and Howard presented the expanded proposal to the Truro Select Board on July 13.

    The new structure would likely have a canopy — the area used for growing plants — of about 1,000 square feet, though plans are not yet final, Ment told the Independent. That’s about 10 times as much cultivation space as was in the original proposal. Ment said about half of the building will be used for cultivation.

    In spite of the scale of the expansion, Ment said that “the Hatchery,” as the facility is tentatively named, will still be considered a “tier 1” cultivation facility, that is, the smallest possible class, in the eyes of the state Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). But specifics of the building size have “a huge margin of error” he added, because the plan is in its early stages.

    The property at 1 Noons Heights Road is currently owned by Michael F. Winkler of Truro, according to the assessor’s database, and includes 4.43 acres of land and three existing buildings: a 960-square-foot office building, a 1,464-square-foot wood-frame storage garage, and a 6,600-square-foot metal-frame storage garage. The property is valued at $1,010,800.

    Ment told the Independent that the dispensary owners had reached an agreement with Winkler to build the new structure on the property, which Winkler confirmed.

    Winkler currently operates a crane service out of the Noons Heights Road property, and he said he will continue to do so once the Hatchery is up and running.

    “Not much has happened yet,” said Winkler. “All this stuff is preliminary.”

    The dispensary owners have been negotiating with the town since March over a host community agreement (HCA) — the state-mandated arrangement between a marijuana business and the town government where it is to be located.

    The increase in the size of the building, said Ment, came about during those negotiations.

    It’s an outcome that “seemed to both parties like a viable option,” he said, but he would not explain why the town sees a larger facility as advantageous, because, he said, those negotiations are still ongoing.

    Production at the facility will be limited to products to stock the two stores, Piping Plover and Salty Farmers, Ment said, to give them a competitive advantage. While he is unsure exactly what they will make, he anticipates the products will include edibles.

    “The idea is we want things from beginning to end,” Howard said at the meeting.

    If it is approved, the business will have the only licenses available in Truro for marijuana cultivation and for manufacturing — the two licenses are separate, as required by state rules. That limit on licenses available in Truro was approved by voters at a special town meeting in 2018.

    The High Dune Craft Cooperative, a group of farmers who were recently approved for a provisional license to grow marijuana at five farms, is the only other cannabis business in Truro. They have a different type of license, intended for small farmers, called a craft marijuana cultivator cooperative license, and are currently in the process of preparing a site plan review application for the Truro Planning Board, said Michael Fee, a Boston-based lawyer who is representing the cooperative during the application process.

    The new scope of the Hatchery proposal means the timeline for the project is longer than at first anticipated. Most of the additional time will come from building an entirely new structure, which was not in the original proposal. “It’s not easy to get anything built,” Ment said.

    Ment’s and Howard’s presentation to the select board featured a rendering of what the building could look like: a steel-frame structure with solar panels on the roof. Ment said the details are likely to change after incorporating more input from community members and town officials.

    But the additional challenges of building a new facility should pay dividends, at least according to the owners’ projections. The updated financial forecast they presented to the select board projected nearly $1.4 million in revenue in FY2023 and $2.5 million in FY2024, more than doubling the predicted revenue for the original proposal.

    As with retail business, the host community agreement for this type of facility could call for a “community impact fee.” Select board vice chair Kristen Reed said that is in the cards, though the details of how it would work remain to be negotiated.

    Depending on the fee percentage in the agreement (which is capped at 3 percent and can be imposed for no more than five years) and the accuracy of financial projections, the town could collect an estimated $41,000 in FY 2023 and $75,000 in FY 2024 from this facility.

    Massachusetts law requires marijuana operations have sufficient security measures to prevent unauthorized entrance. The Hatchery will not be open to the public and will have a security plan approved by Truro police, Howard and Ment told the select board. They also said the facility will be equipped with “surveillance cameras, perimeter alarm, and electronic access controls,” and that only authorized personnel will be allowed on the premises, and the building will be locked at all times.

    Before the presentation began, board chair Bob Weinstein commended the “thoroughness and clarity” of Ment’s and Howard’s presentation slides.

    Reed and Town Manager Darrin Tangeman, who are part of the team negotiating the HCA on behalf of the town, praised the security systems they saw at site visits to both existing retail locations as part of negotiations.

    “I couldn’t say enough positive things about the way both of their establishments are being run,” Reed said. Compared to dispensaries she said she’d seen both in and out of state, she said the two collaborating on this project were “impressive,” in terms of their facilities and professionalism.

    TRAFFIC

    Marijuana Delivery Service Eyes Eastham

    ‘Order from your phone, and it’s delivered to your doorstep’

    By

    EASTHAM — The select board voted 4 to 0 at their July 12 meeting to pursue a host community agreement with KushKart LLC, a recreational marijuana home-delivery start-up that has partnered with Salty Farmers in Eastham. Board member Al Cestaro was absent from the meeting.

    “It’s basically giving people the opportunity to bring recreational use to their front door,” KushKart co-founder Taylor Weaver told the board. “With cannabis there’s still somewhat of a stigma. We would like to alleviate that by making available a discreet process where you can essentially order cannabis from your phone and it’s delivered to your doorstep — hopefully within an hour.”

    KushKart’s proposed location is in the rear unit at 120 Holmes Road in North Eastham. (Photo Linda Culhane)

    Weaver said in a July 19 phone call that he expected KushKart to receive its final license from the state Cannabis Control Commission in August or September.

    KushKart would be located at the Salty Farmers building at 120 Holmes Road in North Eastham and would not be open to the public. The delivery service would sell products from Salty Farmers and other Massachusetts cannabis wholesalers. Weaver told the board the company’s goal is to work with other dispensaries on Cape Cod.

    “This will cut down on traffic,” said Weaver, noting that he hoped to have one to three vehicles making deliveries.

    “Are you worried at all about security?” asked board member Art Autorino. “I mean, this isn’t a Brinks truck, right?”

    Salty Farmers co-owner Harlen Howard replied that the vehicles are required to have GPS tracking, two forms of communication, and mounted lock boxes. Two people are required to be in the vehicle, with one person remaining in the car during deliveries.

    “In the state of Massachusetts, the delivery is every bit as regulated as every other piece of the marijuana business,” said Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe.

    “What do you have to do at the delivery point to verify that the person you’re giving it to is the person that ordered it, and it’s legal for them to have it?” asked Autorino.

    KushKart’s Taylor Weaver. (Photo courtesy Chicago Scholars)

    Weaver replied that the regulations were similar to those for alcohol delivery, where recipients must present government issued identification. “We’re going to rely mostly on government regulation, but also a little bit on common sense,” said Weaver, “looking at the I.D. to make sure they look like the person.”

    Weaver is a private equity, mergers, and acquisitions lawyer with the firm Paul Hastings LLP. He attended Southern Methodist University, where he played football, and has a degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

    Board member Jamie Demetri noted the many industries now providing delivery, calling it the “standard that’s out there right now.”

    “How many things have people gotten delivered to their homes over the last year and a half?” asked Demetri. “I think it makes a lot of sense. I’m excited to think that Eastham could potentially spearhead something like this.”

    Beebe said this week that the draft of a host community agreement was expected to be ready in August for the select board’s review.

    Editor’s note: Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article erroneously reported the name of the law firm that Taylor Weaver currently works for. He formerly was with Latham & Watkins but is now with the New York office of Paul Hastings.

    CANNABUSINESS

    Wellfleet’s First Pot Shop Doesn’t Look Like One

    Cape Cod Cannabis has no visible sign — for now

    By

    WELLFLEET — For the past month, since the Cape Cod Cannabis dispensary opened its doors at the old South Wellfleet General Store on April 20, Allan Kronfeld, the manager of the store, has been getting phone calls from confused customers. They can’t find the store. They’re pretty sure that they’re at the right address — 1446 State Highway Route 6 — but Cape Cod Cannabis is nowhere to be seen.

    In fact, they’re usually standing right outside the store, said Kronfeld. There’s just no way for them to know that. The special permit that the Wellfleet Zoning Board of Appeals granted Cape Cod Cannabis last June stipulated that signs for the store could not include the words “cannabis” or “marijuana,” or any “similar language that would identify the type of facility or nature of business carried on therein,” which is a little like telling a pharmacy that it can’t put up a sign that says “drug store.”

    Add to the language prohibition the requirement that the store’s windows be covered with tinted film — a rule imposed on all marijuana businesses in Massachusetts — and it’s no wonder people are lost, even when they’re just a few feet away from Cape Cod Cannabis. In fact, the only sign on its storefront is, oddly, a bright blue illustration of a whale tale.

    The store’s logo design offended some local officials.

    “People usually think it’s a whale watching store,” Kronfeld said.

    Cape Cod Cannabis is the first retail marijuana store to open in Wellfleet. The Piping Plover, which is expected to open on May 21 at 10 Main St., and Terps, also expected to open later this month right next to the Dunkin’ doughnut shop, have both erected signs with the word “cannabis” prominently displayed. Cape Cod Cannabis is the one exception.

    It appears that the reason for the anomaly might be, mainly, taste. “The main reason,” said Sharon Inger, chair of the zoning board, of Cape Cod Cannabis’s unusual situation, “is that neighbors were very much not happy about the design for the store’s sign.”

    The sign for Cape Cod Cannabis — which appears inside the store, on the store’s website, and on its social media accounts, but not on the storefront — is a takeoff on the bookleaf-shaped town entrance signs that dot the state.

    “I’m very deeply offended by this logo,” said Kathleen Bacon, a former Wellfleet selectwoman, during public comment at a March 2020 zoning board hearing. “It’s like ‘Welcome to Cape Cod. Here’s the cannabis.’ Right there on the highway we have a sign that says, ‘Welcome to Wellfleet’ and that’s what you’re mimicking.”

    Bacon also said at that 2020 meeting that, in the time since the select board had granted Cape Cod Cannabis its host community agreement, much of its corporate structure had changed. She singled out Kronfeld: “This young man here, you’ve got an accent. Where are you from?”

    Kronfeld replied that he was born in New York but grew up in Russia.

    “You’re Russian. Mmm-hmm,” Bacon said, arms folded across her chest. “You’ve got a Russian accent. Interesting.”

    Cape Cod Cannabis is, at 4,000 square feet, the largest cannabis facility on the Cape. The shop is owned by Simon Baker, who is based in Florida. This is Baker’s first cannabis shop.

    “Simon was here for the opening,” Kronfeld said. “But now he’s back in Florida.”

    Kronfeld, likewise, is from Florida but moved to the Cape for his job. When asked where on Cape he was living, Kronfeld said, “I think it’s around Dennis Port.”

    Inger said that the zoning board hearings for Cape Cod Cannabis were unusually “contentious.” Many citizens came to a March 2020 session to speak out against the store, primarily on the grounds that the location was too close to a school bus stop and the entrance to the Cape Cod Rail Trail, where many children play.

    Some also felt that the cannabis shop would ruin the character of the area.

    “I don’t need a high from marijuana,” said Barbara Kennedy, who lives in Wellfleet center. “I get my high from living in the beautiful village of Wellfleet.”

    The main problem, from the zoning board’s perspective, was traffic. Inger said that, to mitigate this problem, Cape Cod Cannabis “volunteered” to have customers come to the store by appointment only, which would allow a greater degree of control over how many people were turning off the highway and into the dispensary’s parking area at any one time. Kronfeld, however, said that the town “required” them to have the appointment-only setup. In any case, the policy was specified in the special permit conditions and appointment-only operation is required of the business during its first six months.

    So far, signs and appointments aside, all is going well for Cape Cod Cannabis. Only a month after opening, Kronfeld said, they already have a lot of returning customers, many of whom are happy that they no longer have to drive all the way to Provincetown to get their hands on the good stuff.

    Right now, the store employs 14 people, all of them local, who have “high expertise in cannabis,” said Kronfeld. In a month, when the summer season kicks into high gear, the number of employees at the shop will double.

    And, by that point, it’s possible that Cape Cod Cannabis will be allowed to identify itself as such. Inger told the Independent that, in the time since the special permit was granted, Massachusetts has altered its regulations to explicitly provide that cannabis dispensaries are allowed to use the words “cannabis” and “marijuana” on their storefronts. Before that, the state had not said anything about the issue one way or the other.

    “I expect we’ll hear from Cape Cod Cannabis soon about updating their permit,” said Inger.

    CANNABUSINESS

    And Then There Were Three: Another P’town Pot Shop Opens

    A growing industry could mean a local medical outlet by winter

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Hennep opened its doors at 246 Commercial St. on Monday, May 3, becoming the third retail marijuana shop in Provincetown.

    Owner Andrew Koudijs decided to go into the cannabis business when he was a freshman at Boston University after he and his friend Colin Noel attended a panel on the subject. While getting their undergraduate degrees, they worked on business plans, studied regulations, and waded through a complex process that has bedeviled the entire state industry. Now graduated, Koudijs and Noel moved to Provincetown over the winter.

    “My connection to Provincetown is Family Week,” said Koudijs, who grew up in New York State. “My parents split when I was young. My mom is gay, and there weren’t many families like mine where we were. My brother and I came to Family Week in Provincetown at least five times.

    “When I started thinking about joining this industry, the first place where I wanted to do it was Provincetown,” he continued. “I love the people, the energy — I just thought there was no better place to do this.”

    Andrew Koudijs (right) and Colin Noel at Hennep. The two college friends co-founded the recreational marijuana dispensary, Provincetown’s third. (Photo Paul Benson)

    Koudijs is also opening a cultivation and production facility in Franklin, right off Interstate 495. Almost every retail operation on the Outer Cape is also working on a cultivation facility or a manufacturing facility for edibles — or both. In most cases, it’s the retail shop that opens first, before the other facilities are fully licensed, which is why there’s been a scramble among dispensaries for high-quality merchandise.

    “There’s not a super-wide variety of products on the market right now,” said Koudijs. “So, it’s difficult to differentiate yourself from a product standpoint. The menus will come out from the cultivators that are operating, and everything will get snatched up in 30 seconds — you’re left picking up the scraps.”

    The state’s demand for rigorous product testing is another bottleneck, since there are few licensed labs. “Massachusetts just licensed their third lab, just in the last 12 months,” said Koudijs. At that original panel discussion he attended, one panelist recommended going into the lab business. “I remember Andrew looked at me and said, ‘Where’s the fun in that?’ ” Noel said.

    Koudijs is the sole owner of Hennep’s retail operation, according to documents posted by the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). The cultivation business is co-owned with his brother Alec. “It’s a family business, and family-run,” said Koudijs. “This is the only retail operation we’re doing.”

    Koudijs says he was able to find housing for himself last winter, but staff housing has been a challenge. One recent location he looked at was meant for eight people, with one bathroom. “How are they supposed to get ready for work?” Koudijs asked.

    The Heal Deal & Medical

    Curaleaf, b/well, and Hennep may soon be joined by a fourth pot shop in Provincetown. Trish Faass, manager of Heal Provincetown, Inc. at 48 Shank Painter Road, expects her recreational pot shop to open in July and a cultivation operation in Sturbridge to be fully licensed by the fall. That could mean medical-grade marijuana will have an Outer Cape dispensary by winter.

    Medical marijuana was authorized in Massachusetts in 2012, four years before recreational, or “adult-use,” marijuana. Yet the nearest source of medical-grade marijuana products is the Triple M dispensary in Mashpee.

    There are several reasons for this, people in the industry say, but the primary one is that medical marijuana dispensaries are required to grow and process 55 percent of what they sell. This has led to higher costs and delays.

    “It’s quite expensive to build out a cultivation and a manufacturing facility,” said Faass.

    Medical-grade marijuana is significantly different from the strains found in recreational stores. For cancer patients and people with chronic pain, there are dozens of compounds in cannabis that are thought to be bioactive and medicinal.

    “You’re looking for the entourage effect — the benefits of the whole plant, without stripping out the terpenes and leaving just THC to get high,” said Faass. Terpenes are aromatic compounds found in plants such as lavender, rosemary, and lemon peel that are especially concentrated in high-quality cannabis. Medical patients will seek out the strain that works best for their condition, according to Faass.

    Another likely reason the Outer Cape has been slow to get medical marijuana is the size of the tourist market, making recreational a priority. Large operators, such as Curaleaf, are capped at three recreational outlets and three medical outlets statewide; the medical ones tend to be located closer to metropolitan centers.

    “We think there are a lot of people who come out here more than just one week a year,” said Faass. “We’ll make a push to convert some of those medical users to our location.”

    MEET THE MAKER

    Building a Better Pot Pipe

    An industrial designer and a ceramicist collaborate on more perfect paraphernalia

    By

    When they released their first pipe, designers Jess Baer and Zach Hastings were surprised to find it was a controversial object. Two years ago, noticing marijuana’s progress toward legalization, they thought it might be time for a second look at smoke delivery design.

    The pipe’s design started with doodles and mockups “to explore what would feel nice in the hand.” (Photos Jess Baer)

    “In art school, kids were always making ceramic pipes,” says Baer. The two felt some nostalgia about those handmade efforts. Now that they, and cannabis, were all grown up, she adds, “We wanted to create a well-crafted and well-designed version, beyond what you’d find in a college town head shop.”

    But when they put their perfected pipe up for sale on Etsy — the popular online marketplace for artisanal goods — it was quickly removed from the site. It hadn’t dawned on the couple that their creation would be deemed “drug paraphernalia,” which is prohibited on Etsy.

    Since then, Baer and Hastings have found other ways to bring their pipes to market. Because marijuana is legal in Massachusetts, and because their studio is in Worcester, they can sell within the state. The pipes made their way to the Outer Cape via artist and illustrator Keith MacLelland, who, years ago, worked with Baer at Apple and now co-owns Longstreet Gallery in Eastham.

    The gallery displayed it alongside the couple’s collection of handmade ornaments last Christmas.

    A plastic 3D rendition allows for exploration of the doodles in three dimensions before a mold is made.

    They still don’t think of themselves as “cannabis people.”

    “We make teacups,” Baer says, “but we aren’t tea people.”

    The two have day jobs. Hastings is an industrial designer who specializes in medical equipment. His claim to fame is an Aircast boot for sprained ankles. Baer creates online courses for the University of Massachusetts. She took up ceramics after taking a class in 2007 and stayed with it. Three years ago, she began working in a studio space she shares with two other artists in Worcester.

    The couple also have a little boy. “He’s our best collaboration so far,” says Baer.

    Their collaboration on the pipe started with doodles. Hastings then used CAD (computer-assisted design) to articulate the drawings in three dimensions. Baer then worked from a version produced on a 3D printer to create a physical mold. “There were lots of handoffs,” Baer says. “It was like a game of football.

    Moisture is drawn off the casting overnight, then the soft, raw stoneware piece can be carefully removed from the mold.

    “Zach hasn’t done ceramics since high school,” she adds. “It’s too dirty for him.” Baer is the hands-on “maker.”

    Both enjoy exploring the relationship between materials and design. They could have worked with hand-built or wheel-thrown clay, Baer says, but they decided on stoneware instead. “We chose slipcast because we wanted a really exact design that would be highly repeatable,” she says. Still, Baer estimates they’ve made a grand total of only 200 pieces.

    Before getting to a precise design, the pipe-making process involved a lot of trial and error. At first, Baer says, “you cast a bunch of terrible ones.” Friends took on the task of “usability testing.” And over a year-long period, as the design inched closer to perfection, Baer tried some 20 different tests of glazes and colors.

    Finished pipes. Only the tops are glazed, so the grip won’t be slippery.

    Only the top of the pipe is glazed, Baer points out. Leaving the bottom raw allows for a good grip.

    Because they started their design pre-pandemic, the bowl is relatively large — big enough for communal use. “It’s a coffee table piece,” Baer says. It’s pod-friendly. But next up, she says, is a pocket version. “And a new teacup.”

    Jess Baer can be found on Instagram at baer.ceramics.

    CANNABUSINESS

    New Marijuana Business Hatching in Truro

    Wellfleet and Eastham retailers are hoping to grow locally

    By

    TRURO — The owners of two planned cannabis retail shops, the Piping Plover in Wellfleet and the Salty Farmers in Eastham, are negotiating a community host agreement to grow and manufacture marijuana products at 1 Noons Heights Road in North Truro.

    The business owners are Zachary Ment, founder of the Piping Plover at 10 Main St. in Wellfleet, and Harlen Howard of Truro and Jonah Turner of Eastham, who are co-owners of Salty Farmers, which will have a retail shop at 182 Brackett Road (near Sam’s Deli) and a 2,000-square-foot indoor grow facility at 120 Holmes Road in Eastham.

    The Eastham and Wellfleet businesses already have provisional licenses from the state Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) to sell or grow marijuana. Final state licensing for the Piping Plover is expected on April 15, Ment told the Independent. He estimates he’ll be opening in May. Howard said renovations to the Eastham facilities are nearly complete and he hopes to be open in June.

    On March 23, Ment and Howard appeared before the Truro Select Board to apply to use the 960-square-foot ranch-style home on Noons Heights Road owned by Michael Winkler. The brown building, which is in a commercial zone, is visible from Route 6. Ment, Howard, and Turner want to add a kitchen to make edibles, including gummies, lozenges, and chocolates, Ment said.

    This building on Noons Heights Road in North Truro may become a cannabis manufacturing facility called the Hatchery. (Photo K.C. Myers)

    They will use about 100 square feet of the space for the indoor cultivation of special strains of marijuana, Ment said. The edibles would be for sale only in their own retail shops, Howard told the select board. No customers or members of the general public would be able to go inside “the Hatchery,” the working name for the Truro venture. Ment said the moniker could change.

    Select board member Kristen Reed and Town Manager Darrin Tangeman agreed to negotiate the terms of the host agreement with the business owners. Truro has just one other host agreement with a marijuana operation, the High Dune Craft Cooperative, which is still awaiting a provisional license to grow marijuana at five different farms, four in Truro and one in Wellfleet. The co-op members just completed a second list of questions from the CCC. They expect a provisional license soon after, said David DeWitt, one of the members of the cooperative.

    If Ment’s and Turner’s plan materializes, they will have taken the one cultivation and one manufacturing business licenses available in Truro. The cooperative, meanwhile, will be using a social equity license, which allows them to grow, manufacture, and deliver product, DeWitt explained.

    The High Dune Craft Cooperative agreement, signed in August 2019, stipulates that the farmers will contribute one percent of their gross sales in the first year, increasing to 3 percent in year three, to the town. Sales will be calculated by an independent auditor. There is a mediation process if six or more neighbors living 600 feet or fewer from the farms complain about nuisances such as noise or odor.

    Sue Areson of the select board asked Howard what happens inside a building that manufactures cannabis products.

    “We are going to build a nice kitchen,” he replied. “The idea is to keep our shelves stocked. It is edibles for ourselves.”

    The security plan, which must be approved by the Truro police, includes cameras and doors controlled by electronic key fobs, Howard said.

    With recreational marijuana shops banned in most Cape towns (except Mashpee, Orleans, and Brewster), pot purveyors are hoping the Outer Cape will become the green mile. Eastham expects to host two retail shops, Salty Farmers and Emerald Grove at the Main Street Mercantile complex on Route 6.

    In Wellfleet, besides Ment’s shop, there is Cape Cod Cannabis at the former South Wellfleet General Store, 1446 Route 6. It was inspected by the CCC in February and has been recommended for final licensing.

    Truro will have growers and manufacturing but no retail sales. Provincetown, meanwhile, already has two pot shops open for business, Curaleaf and b/well.

    The two Provincetown stores have so far paid the town $480,000 in taxes and fees for the year 2020. That corresponds to about $8.7 million in total sales.

    CANNABIS CASH

    Pot Produces $480K in New Tax Revenue

    Receipts indicate nearly $9 million in sales from two stores in 2020

    By

    curaleaf
    Curaleaf delivered a $10,000 check to the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod late last year. (Photo courtesy Curaleaf)

    PROVINCETOWN — A long-anticipated source of new tax revenue was confirmed last week when Provincetown reported fourth-quarter payments from Curaleaf and b/well, the two cannabis dispensaries that opened here in 2020. The town took in $480,000 in taxes and fees for the year.

    That corresponds to about $8.7 million in total sales, despite the pandemic and decreased tourist traffic.

    Curaleaf opened its doors on Jan. 29, 2020, closed again in late March for the lockdown, and reopened on May 25. B/well opened for business on Sept. 4.

    Even though there were no pot shops open for three months of the year, tax payments indicate that Curaleaf had gross sales of $7.3 million, and b/well sold about $1.5 million.

    More cannabis stores are expected soon in Provincetown, Wellfleet, Eastham, and in the mid-Cape. Too many variables make forecasting future revenue difficult, but significant growth is likely.

    Three Plus Three Equals Six

    Retail cannabis shops send money to town coffers in two parallel tracks. Three percent of sales revenue is collected by the state and forwarded to town governments as a “local option tax.” Separately, towns negotiate a host community agreement (HCA) with each retail outlet, and most HCAs include a “community impact fee” of 3 percent of sales.

    Both streams of money go into a town’s general fund. Local option tax revenue can be used for any municipal purpose, but not “community impact fees,” which are meant to offset the negative consequences of having pot shops.

    In guidance published on Jan. 16, 2020, the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) specified that impact fees should “bear some reasonable relation to the costs” that towns experience as a result of the cannabis industry. Costs cited by the CCC included traffic studies, public safety personnel, inspections, and substance abuse programming.

    Host community agreements must be renegotiated every five years, and community impact fees are not guaranteed. In renegotiating them, towns need to document the costs they face and how the money will be used.

    Plus One: Charity, Service

    Separate from taxes and fees, Provincetown’s HCAs require cannabis retailers to donate 1 percent of their gross revenue to local nonprofits, and to perform 100 hours of community service per year.

    This is a common arrangement — according to an investigation by WGBH in Boston, about two-thirds of the almost 500 HCAs they examined require charitable giving and/or community service from dispensaries.

    These provisions have been called into question by retailers and the CCC, however, and last February, the state House of Representatives passed a bill that would strike them from the agreements. It never reached a vote in the state Senate.

    Though Provincetown had planned for dispensary contributions to go into a town-administered grant fund, the town counsel has not yet advised whether that’s appropriate, Assistant Town Manager David Gardner said.

    “There has been considerable pushback from the dispensary association about extraction of fees above and beyond the 3 percent allowed by the law,” said Gardner. “There was also the criminal complaint against the mayor of Fall River [for extortion of cannabis retailers], as well as the subsequent investigation by the FBI into how towns implemented the host agreements. We feel it is prudent to wait to see the issue play out.”

    Instead, Curaleaf and b/well have both agreed to donate 1 percent of their gross revenue to various charities on their own, Gardner said. “Curaleaf is at their one-year anniversary, and they’re willing to complete their 1 percent requirement,” he said. “Nobody is kicking and screaming for them to comply — they’re doing it eagerly.”

    According to Casey Sherman, a publicist for Curaleaf, it recently donated $10,000 each to the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod and Provincetown LGBTQ Welcome Center, and $5,000 to the Provincetown Scholarship Fund. Donations were also made to the Soup Kitchen in Provincetown, Carrie A. Seaman Animal Shelter, and Marcey Oil’s hardship fund. Curaleaf employees have already done more than 300 hours of community service, Sherman said.

    Gardner noted that employees of Curaleaf were the primary volunteer support for three different town elections in 2020. “They were at least two-thirds of the people in the auditorium running the national election, both the early voting and for election day,” he said. “At the outdoor town meeting, they had six or eight people there — the whole perimeter security was Curaleaf.”

    The principal owners of Curaleaf, whose headquarters are in Wakefield, are Russian oligarchs.

    B/well has committed to community service as well, said owner Karen Nash of Provincetown. “When we hire people,” she said, “we tell them part of what we’re doing is giving back to the community — people really like that. Around Christmas, we delivered meals to elderly people. They want to do beach cleanup when it’s a little warmer. And I’ve already committed us to the dog park.”

    Though b/well hasn’t started its donation program yet, “I’m glad we have the whole summer before my anniversary date comes up,” Nash said, adding that she likes being able to choose where the money goes. “I’d much rather build a direct relationship with charities than just surrender it to the town.”

    Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to note that $480,000 is the annual, not the quarterly, town revenue from marijuana sales.

     

    LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

    Letters, September 10, 2020

    From Laura Logue Rood, Michela Murphy, David A. Colton, and Mike Rice

    By

    The Town Manager Shuffle

    To the editor:
    Once again, the Outer Cape town manager shuffle occurs, this time in Truro [“Robert Wood and Truro Part Ways,” Sept. 3, page A4]. How could a select board choose someone for such a position without a socially distanced face-to-face meeting? Mr. Wood’s being unfamiliar with the Outer Cape, let alone never having set foot in Truro, should have been a point of discussion. A simple online search showed that he had his contract terminated in West Lake Hills and was involved in employment litigation in Flatonia.

    The same search firm, Community Paradigm Associates, brought Provincetown Robin Craver, who resigned after six months. She also came with some baggage, having been bought out of her Charlton contract for almost $500,000.

    These would have been red flags to any search committee. Do these boards, despite many talents, have enough experience in professional hiring to appropriately assess candidates? Given what I read about the Provincetown and Truro candidates, I would have suggested that the search firm dig deeper.

    More important, these towns need to think differently about what is needed in a manager. Many candidates are simply recycled from one community to another, some for good reason.

    Rather than exclusively looking for municipal experience, the boards might look for persons with translatable management and fiscal experience. Much about municipal issues can be learned and supplemented by the talented staff that each of these towns have on board. Perhaps that would improve, diversify, and increase the applicant pool, so that our towns can seek the best and brightest. It also might encourage administrators who can bring some other relevant experience and diversity of thought to the table.

    Laura Logue Rood
    Provincetown

    A Small, Necessary Step

    To the editor:

    Over the next several weeks, voters on the Outer Cape will be asked to consider town meeting articles proposed by Sustainable Practices, an environmental advocacy group, which would make it illegal to sell noncarbonated, unflavored drinking water in single-use plastic bottles smaller than a gallon. This campaign is Cape-wide. The first vote is Saturday, Sept. 12, at Wellfleet’s town meeting.

    Voting to support this ban is a small but necessary step we must take to combat the imminent threat of plastic pollution.

    Plastic surrounds us, not just in our daily life but in the water we swim in and the food we eat.

    Since the year 2000, we have created more plastic than was made in all the years before 2000 combined. The fossil fuel industry plans to increase plastic production by 40 percent over the next decade. This will be detrimental not only to sea life, seabirds, and mammals, but to the human race. We who created it must be the ones to stop it.

    I am a member of the Provincetown Portuguese Festival Committee. Before we had to cancel our annual events due to Covid-19, we discussed banning single-use plastic water bottles and being the first festival in Provincetown to sell reusable water bottles that visitors could refill around town.

    Organizers of tourist events on Cape Cod should follow suit, so we can begin to reclaim our planet and protect the home we all love so much. We have already banned single-use plastic bags and plastic straws. This does not seem too great a stretch.

    We must act before it is too late. We will not have many more opportunities to reverse the devastation we have already caused to our planet.

    Let’s make sure future generations of poets aren’t writing odes to a Cape Cod Bay trash island.

    Michela Murphy
    Provincetown

     

    Celebrate With Caution

    To the editor:

    It’s time to recognize the successful efforts of many in Provincetown who kept Covid-19 in check.

    First, the people who insisted on a mandatory mask policy. Even though the initial implementation was uneven, the mandatory zone that was eventually adopted and enforced was mostly a success.

    Second, the vast majority of business owners, who embraced sane social distancing rules, re-imagined their business plans, and worked double-time to keep a diminished economy running.

    Third, the town government (board of health, select board, staff, police, and volunteers) that adopted and enforced restrictions that kept people safe from the virus. We all miss our favorite events and celebrations, but we can take comfort in the fact that more of us will be around to enjoy them when they resume.

    Finally, the full- and part-time residents, renters, and visitors who followed the rules and adjusted their plans to protect public health.

    That’s the good news, but caution is in order. Provincetown has always welcomed all who enter, resulting in a vibrant economy of independent small businesses, massive creativity, and a safe haven for all who seek its embrace. But the future is uncertain, as many of those businesses survived this year on government aid that has dried up. There are some empty shops, and their number could grow, leading to cascading economic failure that will leave no one untouched. Closed businesses mean fewer jobs and less money in the local economy. Lower commercial property values means residential tax bills will be higher. Fewer tourists means fewer patrons of the galleries and entertainment venues.

    Despite the romanticized notion of the “starving artist,” I don’t know of any who really want to live that reality.

    We need a strategy for going into 2021 that will keep all our boats afloat until this storm passes.

    David A. Colton
    Provincetown

     

    Get High or Hydrate?

    To the editor:

    As reported in this newspaper last week, it won’t be long before some pot shops open here in Wellfleet. At that point, they’ll be able to sell these popular brands of marijuana: 9 Pound Hammer, Northern Lights, AK-47, Cannatonic, Chemdawg, Amnesia, Permafrost, Death Star, Trainwreck, White Widow, and Green Crack. The list goes on and on.

    But if Article 23 passes at Wellfleet’s annual town meeting on Sept. 12, it will be unlawful to sell noncarbonated, unflavored drinking water in single-use plastic bottles in the town of Wellfleet effective Sept. 1, 2021.

    Anyone care to explain that contradiction?

    Seems to me that a majority of those vacationing in Wellfleet would rather be hydrated than stoned.

    Mike Rice
    Wellfleet

     

    CANNABIZ

    Two Wellfleet Pot Shops Hope to Open Within Months

    New dispensary in Provincetown begins online sales Friday

    By

    Updated on Sept. 30, 2020

    WELLFLEET — The former South Wellfleet General Store sits vacant with tarped windows and dilapidated shingles, guarded by a chain-link fence and construction tape.

    A similar sight can be found two and a half miles north at the corner of Main Street and Route 6, where a chain-link fence protects a newly refurbished former bank building.

    The two sites are set to become Wellfleet’s first marijuana dispensaries.

    Both Cape Cod Cannabis, at 1446 State Highway, and the Piping Plover, at 10 Main St., have received provisional licenses from the Mass. Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) and look to open their doors sometime this winter.

    The provisional license is the third of four major licensing steps established by the CCC, which clears planned dispensaries for final inspections before they are authorized to open.

    The Piping Plover received its license last winter.

    Andrew Long of A.P. Long Carpentry in North Stonington, Conn., shows off the curved reception desk that will be inside the entrance at Piping Plover at 10 Main St. Long says he is a part-time Wellfleeter, hired by Rob Letendre’s Pleasant Point Builders to do carpentry on site. (Photo Teresa Parker)

    “At this stage, we are just looking to wrap up construction,” said Zachary Ment, the company’s founder and managing member. “Once we have that, we will have an inspection by the CCC, which will get us onto the docket for the final license.”

    The building that the Piping Plover is moving into was built in 1860. It formerly housed the Cape Cod Bank and Trust, which is why Ment first registered his business as “The Old Bank LLC” on CCC application forms.

    Ment said the building “has a lot of connections with local people,” which is why he decided to restore it rather than knock it down. “It was in really, really bad shape,” he said. “We are literally rebuilding the place from the inside out.”

    He is also installing solar panels and increasing the thickness of the walls to accommodate spray foam insulation.

    Ment is hoping to have construction wrapped up by October or November, he said, at which point he can get on the list for a physical inspection by the CCC, which he hopes will take place around December.

    Once the dispensary receives a final license, Ment can begin hiring staff and building his inventory. On the company website, other principals are listed as Michael Drayer, director of retail operations; Eddie Dominguez, director of security; and Trudy Vermehren, the owner of the Fox and Crow Cafe in Wellfleet, as strategic adviser.

    If everything goes according to plan, Ment said, the Piping Plover will open in January.

    Cape Cod Cannabis in South Wellfleet may open even sooner.

    That new dispensary, in the former South Wellfleet General Store, could open as soon as October, according to Executive Officer Allan Kronfeld.

    Cape Cod Cannabis received its provisional license from the CCC on Aug. 7, but has much less construction work to do than the Piping Plover.

    “The work is mostly interior and cosmetic,” said Kronfeld, adding that it does include installing the CCC’s mandatory security system.

    “Now, it’s just finishing renovations,” Kronfeld said. “The timeline will depend on [the CCC] for when the state will come inspect it.”

    Cape Cod Cannabis is also in the permitting process for a cultivation facility in Mashpee, where the company wants to grow marijuana to supply its own stores and sell wholesale to other dispensaries.

    “Our business model and overall objective is to be a vertical business,” Kronfeld said.

    Being a cultivation facility, the Mashpee location has to go through a different set of approvals than dispensaries do.

    Kronfeld said he hopes to see the Mashpee operation open by the fall of 2021.

    A third potential pot shop in Wellfleet, Nature’s Alternative, intends to open next to the Dunkin Donuts store at Cove Corner on Route 6. Its provisional license is still pending.

    The second marijuana store in Provincetown, B\Well at 220 Commercial St., run by Karen Nash, announced this week that it received its final license on Aug. 6 and would begin taking orders online on Friday, Sept. 4.

    Earlier this year, Nash told the Independent that her market research led her to believe that Provincetown would generate $30 million to $35 million in marijuana sales per year, enough to support six cannabis shops.

    The first marijuana store to open in Provincetown was Curaleaf, whose majority stakeholders are Russian oligarchs.

    HEALTH

    Medical Weed May Not Reach Outer Cape

    Lots of marijuana for recreation, but no assurances for patients

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Recreational marijuana stores are coming to the Outer Cape in a big way, but it’s not clear that any of them will provide medical formulations of the drug to patients with prescriptions.

    Curaleaf opened its doors in Provincetown last week, and the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) is currently reviewing five more applications for stores in Provincetown, as well as two in Wellfleet and two in Eastham.

    In its host community agreement with the town Curaleaf agreed “to provide free or reduced-cost medical marijuana to qualified residents of Provincetown.” But the host agreement did not lock in that provision in the event that the corporation, which is the largest distributor of legal marijuana in the U.S., decided not to conduct medical sales.

    Recreational and medical sales are conducted differently, and while it’s possible to do both at the same location, the state’s rules don’t make it easy. The financial rewards of selling recreational pot and the difficulties of dispensing medical prescriptions mean that most or all of these new shops could open as recreational-only, leaving medical marijuana patients without a local option.

    No Medical at Curaleaf

    Phyllis Ewen, an artist who lives in Cambridge and Wellfleet, didn’t realize that Curaleaf was recreational-only until she arrived at the store last week. Ewen has painful arthritis, and she prefers tinctures that can be carefully measured and dosed, and that take effect immediately rather than sneaking up on her later.

    “Fortunately, I don’t use particularly high doses of anything,” said Ewen, “and I did like what I found at Curaleaf. It’s a totally different line of products than the medical shop back in Cambridge, though.”

    For a customer, the first differences are dosage and price. The strength of recreational products is tightly regulated. Edibles, for instance, are almost all sold in packages that include 100 milligrams of the active ingredient THC, divided into 20 equal doses of 5 mg. Because it is prescribed by a doctor, medical marijuana can be much stronger, with doses of 25 mg or more being common.

    It’s possible to just buy lots of recreational pot to reach that higher dosage, but that’s generally not the cheapest alternative. Also, medical sales are tax-free, while recreational sales are taxed at 20 percent. For people who use medical marijuana daily to manage pain, nausea, PTSD, or other conditions, the cost difference can add up quickly.

    While medical cannabis is important for patients, it’s not that easy for a dispensary to be both medical and recreational.

    “Co-located dispensaries are supposed to keep the user experience completely separate,” said Spencer Knowles, a member of the Cannabis on Cape Cod advocacy and networking group, and an executive at Sira Naturals. “They’re supposed to divide their space so that medical and recreational don’t mix at all — separate the customers, the staff, the product, even the inventory storage areas. They don’t have to have separate doors, but it’s pretty close to that.”

    Having enough space for two parallel operations isn’t the only challenge though, explained David DeWitt, a longtime pot farmer and founding member of Truro’s High Dune Craft Cooperative. There are also two different sets of rules. For instance, medical sales are all logged and tracked back to the patient in a statewide database, whereas nothing like that exists for recreational sales.

    There are about 60,000 patients in Massachusetts who are signed up in the Medical Use of Marijuana Program — a much smaller market than recreational, although arguably a more dedicated one. And the out-of-state tourists who flock to the Outer Cape in summer can’t participate in Massachusetts’s medical cannabis system, but they can shop at a recreational dispensary.

    In other words, choosing to be medical only on the Outer Cape means forgoing a lot of tourist-driven income, and choosing to be both medical and recreational takes a lot of space. DeWitt and Knowles agreed that the Outer Cape might not see a medical dispensary anytime soon. (In addition to his own businesses and the High Dune Craft Cooperative, DeWitt is also a manager at the Provincetown Curaleaf store.)

    ‘Medical Refugees’

    Rose Cain, a nurse practitioner who is licensed to certify patients for medical marijuana, has seen this problem before. She calls patients without a local dispensary “medical refugees.” The nearest dispensary to the Outer Cape is in Mashpee. Cain estimates that a quarter of her patients grow their own cannabis or get it free from friends; the rest are driving long distances, signing up with a delivery service, or buying outside the medical system.

    Cain also pointed to an aspect of medical use of marijuana that’s rarely present in recreational use. “The medical community is interested in all of the other bioactive compounds in marijuana strains, beyond just THC and CBD,” she said. “These other compounds enhance each other, and they’re all part of the healing effects. Recreational strains tend to max out the allowable cannabinoids with THC and aren’t especially cultivated for the diverse other molecules that medical patients are looking for.”

    As it stands, three of the businesses that are currently being reviewed by the CCC have told town hall they intend to pursue medical and recreational licenses, said Provincetown’s Assistant Town Manager David Gardner. None of them, however, is obligated to follow through, and none has promised to do so.

    In its earliest filings, Curaleaf was to be a medical-only shop on Harry Kemp Way. Then it was medical and recreational. Now it’s open with only a recreational license. When and if the pending licensees are approved by the CCC, the local licensing boards will be the first to find out if plans for medicinal pot are still alive or have fallen by the wayside.

     

     

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