HADLEY — Plans for medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers in the area are among 166 proposed facilities in the state’s licensing pipeline and have local officials raising questions about the future impact on their communities.
Hadley is one town where local officials are taking a hard look at a proposed medical marijuana dispensary at the site of a former gasoline station on Route 9 near the Amherst line. Rather than swiftly issue a letter of support as part of the state licensing process, they set up a committee last week to examine the proposal and discuss terms of a possible host community agreement.
“We want to make sure we do the right thing,” Hadley Town Administrator David G. Nixon said. “This is a new process to all of us. We are trying to be as responsible as we can to the extent that is allowed us under state law.”
Amherst has handled three proposals for dispensaries, and facilities are planned or expected to open in Berkshire, Franklin and Hampden counties.
Meanwhile, marijuana-growing facilities are in the works by other companies in cities including Easthampton and Westfield, according to state records and published news reports.
State officials say open counties, or those without operating dispensaries today, are likely to get priority in a licensing process that began last year. The application process can take as long as 1 ½ years from the day a company files an application to when it opens a dispensary. The licensing is overseen by the state Department of Public Health, which posts the status of applications on its website.
“Our role is to review these to determine if they meet the (licensing) standards,” Scott Zoback, a DPH spokesman said of the torrent of applications before the state agency. “It’s a pretty straightforward process.”
Five companies have thus far received approval to open dispensaries and growing facilities in the state, including New England Treatment Access Inc., which operates dispensaries in Northampton and Brookline and a cultivation facility in Franklin. The dispensary operated by New England Treatment Access Inc. at 118 Conz St. in Northampton is the only dispensary currently open in western Massachusetts.
Under state law, medical marijuana dispensaries are required to be “vertically integrated,” which means they must grow and dispense their own marijuana, with limited exceptions, rather than purchase it from a supplier. There is no limit on the amount of marijuana a dispensary can have and the nonprofit corporations set up to run them can operate up to three dispensaries under the law.
In addition to several stages of review, inspections and testing of products at the state level, cities and towns play a role in the licensing process beyond simply overseeing local approvals through planning boards and ensuring that companies meet zoning and other requirements.
A medical marijuana dispensary cannot proceed through the licensing process unless it receives a letter of support or nonopposition from a municipality, which can determine how many medical marijuana facilities are appropriate for a community.
The local approval “isn’t final determination that they’ll open, but it’s something we’ll need to see on our end,” Zoback said.
Zoback noted that the Department of Public Health does not require or review host community agreements between communities and companies operating dispensaries and growing facilities.
Amherst officials gave letters of support this year to three separate companies planning medical marijuana facilities in that town, though they have not yet discussed a host community agreement that could address any anticipated adverse impacts of such facilities, according to Alisa Brewer, chairwoman of the Select Board.
“We have seen that other communities have done that. We have not,” Brewer said. “It’s our understanding we would have such an agreement at some point. We’re just choosing not to do it yet. We just didn’t see the point in doing it now.”
Brewer said the Select Board was not surprised to see three proposed dispensaries in Amherst given the level of support in town for medical marijuana use.
“Our community sentiment toward marijuana use made us attractive from day one,” she said.
The Hadley Select Board stopped short of issuing a letter of support or nonopposition for Happy Valley Compassion Center Inc. of North Easton, which recently filed with the Planning Board for a dispensary at the site of the former Sunoco station on Route 9 across from Stop & Shop supermarket.
Nixon said town officials, including the police chief, want to examine a variety of issues, including traffic and security as well as local health board regulations addressing dispensaries.
“From there we’ll start putting together a list that may need mitigation or may not and come up with a host community agreement that will hopefully address our concerns,” Nixon said.
Hadley Police Chief Michael A. Mason said public safety and ensuring the site is secure are his primary concerns. He has conferred with the Northampton Police Department about its experience with the opening of the medical marijuana dispensary in that city.
Mason said he wants to have a clear understanding of where and how marijuana would be stored on site and transported, for example.
“Where I’m going to start is all really based around the security of their business,” said Mason, who serves on the newly assembled review committee. “A lot of it is really a learning process. We don’t want to see somebody get robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot.”
Like Amherst, Hadley officials said they were hardly surprised that a dispensary has been pitched in town because there has been heavy interest from more than one company, according to Nixon.
“I’ve been contacted on a fairly regular basis by companies inquiring about the Town of Hadley,” Nixon said.
Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.