Many businesses vying for a license near New Hampshire have experience in neighboring towns
With no adult-use cannabis in sight in nearby New Hampshire, delegates from eight cannabis companies danced for Tewksbury Select Board members over the course of multiple meetings last month vying for one of the town’s three retail licenses.
The municipality of roughly 30,000 people near the Granite State border narrowly rejected adult-use cannabis when the state legalized in 2016, with officials following up by effectively blocking weed sales in the town via bylaws. But last October, Town Meeting members there adopted changes that could bring dispensaries to Tewksbury.
As the local Daily Times Chronicle reported last week, the Select Board will “grant licenses on a somewhat modified first-come first-serve basis, assuming an applicant offered a completed license application and did other due diligence.” Among the requirements, “The board is looking for companies that have been well-vetted.”
Also of note: “while the town has three retail marijuana licenses available, the Select Board is under no obligation to award all three. In fact, when the board reconvenes [this] week for more discussion on the matter, they could choose to award just one or two, or even none at all.”
Applicants include: Lazy River, which already has retail in neighboring Dracut and products on shelves across Mass; Full Harvest Moonz, which has dispensaries in Haverhill and Lowell; Community Care Collective, which has cannabis businesses in Billerica and Littleton; and Carbonear, which would be operated by the Amesbury-based, veteran-owned CNA Stores.
When Tewksbury Select Board members meet this week, they should consider the proposed changes to Host Community Agreements (HCAs) that are currently making their way through the state Cannabis Control Commission.
In the meantime, you can find more coverage of the applications and testimonies submitted to the Select Board here.
