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It's Still an Economic Driver, While New Law Addresses Thorny Issues
According to the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC), legal marijuana is now an annual $3 billion business in Massachusetts.
The communities that have embraced it from the beginning, like Holyoke, can attest to cannabis as an economic driver in terms of commercial real estate, jobs, and other opportunities. The city now has four dispensaries, three grow facilities, and a testing lab up and running, with dozens of other applications at various stages of the permitting process - a process, city Planning & Economic Development Director Aaron Vega said, that was always intended to be easy to navigate.
"This community voted in favor. The mayor was in favor. As a state representative, I was in favor. And we didn't want to make it more difficult. It was challenging enough with the regulations coming down from the state. We saw this as an industry that could take over some vacant and underutilized buildings, and that's what informed how we went forward."
That has indeed occurred. "We're very excited about the investment that has happened - tens of millions invested in these downtown buildings because of cannabis, and 500 jobs that didn't exist three years ago," Vega said, noting that the cannabis enterprises themselves aren't an endgame, but a way to spur even more investment.
"What do you do with 500 people? You make sure they're going to your concerts, going to your restaurants and events, utilizing your local food trucks. And then there's the ancillary businesses to the cannabis industry; how do we lure them to the city and make it even more beneficial for companies to do business in Holyoke?"
Other cities and towns have, to varying degrees, told similar stories. But the host-community agreements they've put forward have not always been well-received, and that was one of several issues addressed last month by a multi-faceted cannabis bill passed overwhelmingly by the state Senate and House of Representatives and signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker.
Among its main elements, the law clarifies the host-community agreement (HCA) process by authorizing the CCC to prioritize social-equity program businesses and economic-empowerment priority applicants for expedited review.
It also clarifies the scope of HCAs and...