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Zoning board approves marijuana dispensary in downtown Boston
By adamg on Tue, 08/04/2015 - 10:07am
The Zoning Board of Appeal this morning voted unanimously to approve what would be Boston's first medical-marijuana dispensary at 21 Milk St.
The board approved the conditional permit needed by Patriot Care for the dispensary, at which patients with prescriptions will be able to purchase marijuana.
The board was not swayed by arguments by city councilors Bill Linehan, Steve Murphy and Michael Flaherty, by local residents groups and by St. Francis House that the facility would flood a rapidly developing area with new drug users, would lead to existing drug users preying on patients and was not accessible enough to people in cars.
Resident Rishi Shukla said there is "another 120 miles of Suffolk County," Patriot Care should consider.
Mayor Walsh and city councilors Michelle Wu, Ayanna Pressley, Tito Jackson and Matt O'Malley supported the proposal.
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Comments
!!!!!!
Wow. No hesitation at all?!? I was expecting this to be a big fight today..
They limited testimony
Because so much was given at a hearing a few weeks ago.
Milk Street
Does seem like an odd place to put it. I'm not against medical marijuana, I think marijuana should be totally legalized. Just think Milk St. is an odd, unless it's so they won't have to deal with residential complaints.
do residents often complain
do residents often complain about regular pharmacies? what makes these different?
When's the last time you saw
a Walgreens or a CVS in a residental neighborhood?
I guess it depends
I guess it depends on what you mean by "residential neighborhood". There are CVS and Walgreens stores all over the city, not smack dab in the middle of housing with no other commercial presence, but within a block of residences. So, purely residential? By definition, no. Mixed residential/commercial, sure, it seems fairly common at least in the city.
I can walk to a CVS in 3 minutes from my apartment
and on the way, I walk by many other houses and apartment buildings that are even closer to it.
(also, while some people may live on or near Milk Street, it is overwhelmingly a business district)
There's a hell of a battle
There's a hell of a battle going on over putting a CVS into Hopkinton right now.
Which has absolutely nothing to do with the drugs they sell
Which, since you've heard of the issue, you probably already know.
The proposed CVS would replace one of those Much Beloved Locally Owned Stores (that couldn't survive the competition from a new chain store). People in the Boring Except for that One Day in April town don't want a chain moving in. Has absolutely nothing to do with people horrified at the thought of oxycontin addicts drowning in Hopkinton State Park.
Offering 750-1000 sf of
Patriot is offering 750-1000 sf of frontage to submerge the presence of the dispensary.
Three candidates for this space:
- Artists Crossing
- Cambridge Innovation Center (CICNow)
- Danger!Awesome
Resident Rishi Shukla said
Translation: Put this in someone else's back yard, not mine.
Now, now..
Rishi is a proud alumni of the Business School. We all know weed is far too plebeian for the B School. Coke is far more discreet and sends the right message at those dinner parties potheads will now be ruining at Millennium Place as they shuffle zombie like towards Milk Street.
"a proud alumni'
even in today's PC world, that's impossible. Oh wait, unless Rishi identifies as more than one person. Never mind.
finally
glad to hear the mayor got some common sense finally, instead of stupidly grandstanding on this issue
can't say the same for the three stooges: linehan, murphy and flaherty. vote them out this november!
This will be a disaster for
This will be a disaster for the city and for that blighted area. Unbelievably stupid. Astonishing really!
Sarcasm?
You do realize that Milk Street downtown is sort of the opposite of blighted.
Not sarcasm . . .
. . . but I did think it was nearer to Chinatown and St. Francis House than it actually is. I stand by my statement--this is NOT going to be good for Downtown and it definitely isn't good for the residents of St. Francis House. I don't care that they will supposedly only be selling to people with a doctor's note, there is going to be plenty of action on the sidelines around this. I wouldn't want it on my block if I lived down there and I can't believe you would either. Ever live near a methadone clinic? Not what anyone would choose.
so
You're against places like CVS. Walgreens, and Methadone clinics too?
Seriously, I'd rather live near a pot dispensary than a CVS that doles out opiates all the time. I wish I had a dollar for every time I see some opiate addict nodding off in DTX.. I can't say that about potheads (except on Boston Common or in Winthrop square)
And you're mistaken about 'dealings' going on outside the place. Do some research in places where medipot is allowed. It just does not happen. And considering the laws in this state are pretty stringent, most patients won't be selling this stuff on the side.. they NEED it because that's all they may get for a while. Unlike Methadone addicts, who can sell their methadone to people to prevent withdrawals (while they take the cash and get real smack), I really doubt any of this will occur out of the dispensary.
And I hate to break it to you, drug deals go on all over the city.. pot dispensary or not. Its not like they aren't going to happen in DTX without one, they will, and continue to do so with or without a dispensary.
And as far as St Francis house.. I think these folks need to pick up a new battle to fight and focus on serving the people they serve, rather than take up political issues such as this.
Seriously. Like I said above, I see more opiate addicts, crack heads, and drunks in DTX all the time than I see pot heads. I think St Francis should go after pharmacies and liquor stores first. Their clientele aren't pot heads, their clients are serious addicts with serious addiction issues. But no, medipot is an easy thing to go after, since there's virtually no industry here yet and no lobby to fight.
well said
top to bottom, a well-stated assessment of the REALITY of the situation as opposed to misguided assumptions. I would rather live next to a dispensary than a bar or even a fast food restaurant because their products make customers much more unpleasant to deal with for whatever reason.
These aren't going to be your typical potheads......
Let me preface by saying I don't think there are going to be any serious problems with this place, especially seeing it is going into a location that already has its problems, but the pot users that will go here are going to be your disabled/homeless/unemployed types (edit: some of them are going to be like this). That doesn't mean it is a bad or dangerous thing, but you will see a certain percentage of those who use this place down on their luck looking for money.
Will it be a major problem or even a minor one? I wouldn't worry about it that's for sure.
I agree
Once again, Pete Nice us the voice of reason. Thanks. I agree.
Cybah
Your points are reasonable and you're probably right. We'll see where it goes.
you know...
...that the Boston Common is right there...in downtown Boston right? Cuz... anyone can score a bag there after sundown, without a prescription already. Emerson dorms, Suffolk dorms....the strip clubs....anything else we should move out of the area to ge rid of the "blight?"
Not on your block, huh?
Are you sure you know the neighborhood as well as you say you do? I work on West Street, and half the time I walk down the street there's a pronounced cloud of boo. I fail to see how a licensed clinic is going to change things for the worse (which is not to say that they're appalling as things stand now...YMMV).
Pearls
here let me get you some pearls to clutch.
Seriously where do people get this information? Its so so wrong..
The Reefer Madness types are
The Reefer Madness types are finally dying out in politics, but there's still enough of them in the population in general, I guess.
Milk Street is far from a blighted area
Are you familiar with it? It's in the financial district. I'm surprised they would open in such a high rent area.
Bllighted?
I am 250 above and 200 feet south of where this thing is going to go. Seriously, when was the last time you were in DTX?. Other than trucks servicing the lottery guy on the back of the Old South, owing he is about to become Frito Lay's biggest customer, I see little blight near here or going forward.
By the way, disaster for the city? There is so much pot smoking already going on in the city, this just changes the purchasing and taxing process.
And I thought people
And I thought people defending Trump would make the dumbest comments of the week(assuming this was not sarcasm).
Meh.
Most of you pot legalization crusaders are a bunch of hotheads. You're worse to talk to than dumbshit marriage equality opponent fundamentalists with your immediate full-force attacks and blustering and crying. Dumbest comment ever? We'll see where this goes--though probably you'll love where it goes with a pile of vomit and a syringe stuck in a turd on every street corner in DTX where there isn't already one now.
Potheads don't shoot up but
Potheads don't shoot up but thanks for sharing your deep deep knowledge.
"pot legalization crusaders"
Is that who you think is responding to your comments? Now that WAS dumb.
Vomit? You do know
that marijuana is a potent anti-emetic? I'm a little skeptical of many of the claims made for marijuana as a medicine but not that one - I know several people personally who benefited from it when they were undergoing chemotherapy.
you sound tense
Try some Afternoon Delite.
Oh please take your canned
Oh please take your canned fear elsewhere. This is not a drug dealer's house, this is a pharmacy.
Patriot said they will never sell recreational marijuana
Also of note: Patriot said they will never sell recreational marijuana, no matter how the law may change in the future. Quite admirable.
Yes, very admirable. God
Yes, very admirable. God forbid people of age want to get high. Oh, wait, let me just get shit faced on a 1/5.
Must be taking a lesson from the cabbies
Rec MJ will be legal after the 2016 elections, and who the hell will bother jumping through the legal hoops to buy MMJ after that?
This is like some appliance store valiantly stating, "We will never sell anything but these typewriters, no matter how things may change in the future." Yes, very admirable.
After all that work getting the MMJ licenses and permits, enjoying going out of business in a couple years rather than adapting to a new market, I guess.
actually
I don't know what full legalization would look like in MA, but I can say that in Colorado, where they legalized medicinal cannabis before they got recreational, the relatively heavy taxation on recreational use makes it significantly more expensive than medicinal cannabis. Patients can also carry more on their person, and they can buy stronger edibles. It seems like most heavy users get med cards, while a big percentage of recreational sales are to tourists. So staying med-only (which a lot of dispensaries in CO have done) isn't necessarily a bad idea business-wise.
I'm not educated on the subject, but what exactly is the basis
for the objections to these dispensaries? Are people with medical marijuana prescriptions known to be criminals? Does the neighborhood become fogged with a cloud of weed smoke, dangerously lowering visibility for pedestrians and drivers? Are there unwanted side effects, like a proliferation of patchouli oil and bad tie-dyed t-shirts?
Now I'm nervous, as there are a few liquor stores in my neighborhood, and the local grocer sells beer and wine. Are we doomed?
Worst case scenerio?
I'd say are people with prescriptions abusing their power and selling weed to others that might not have a prescription. Or people getting robbed when they leave the place.
Methadone clinics will often have friends of patients tag along and those criminal friends will be drug users that might commit theft crimes around the dispensary. Not uncommon to see an uptick of property crime around these locations, as well as other public order offenses.
And yea, the same could be said with many liquor stores as well.
Hmm, now that I think about it, liquor stores
do have abusive adults who will use their power of valid ID to buy alcohol for minors, and I suppose there are occasional muggings of customers and stick-ups of the businesses, and sometimes bums take their purchases and consume them openly out-of-doors. And the litter!
If only we had a way to curb such behaviors, say, a uniformed constabulary. I'll have to contact my local mayor's liaison to look into that idea.
And yet, somehow, a crack in the earth has not opened up and swallowed the neighborhood. It defies belief, but we have managed to survive the presence of liquor retailers in our very midst!
I wasn't really talking about that but....
There are many liquor stores around Boston where patrons will drink outside. Most of the time they don't bother anyone and residents don't complain, and cops don't bother them. But others do have residents who complain about drunk people being loud at night and generally causing an annoyance in the neighborhood. Sometimes these annoyances include small time crimes like gambling or drug dealing.
This is a good point. What's the cannabis-user equivalent of
loitering and being loud in public while drunk?
I'm no expert, but I'm going to say "Dozing off on the sofa after an overdose of Cheetos and Xbox". Or maybe, "Long, rambling, low-key discussions on the relative merits of Phish vs. the Dead."
You're right: that *will* be a public nuisance.
honestly
I think patrons of the dispensary will be more interested in going directly home to 'smoke some of this new dank bud in my bong man', then proceed to eat a case of Pizza Rolls, and watch re-runs of Riptide or Cheers on Netflix.
Exactly! I covered this dire scenario in Example #1 above.
Won't someone think of the innocent Cheetos?
On the other hand, does moving the dispensary from DTX to Belchertown really solve this problem? Or are we just squeezing the balloon, pushing it somewhere else? When will the Commonwealth come to grips with the greater problem of stoner-on-salty-snacks crime?
Not Belchertown..
But STONEham dude!
I'm sure Downtown Crossing
I'm sure Downtown Crossing isn't crime free, but you have to figure that the high pedestrian traffic in the area would prevent discourage people from just mugging people for their pot.
maybe....
except pot is readily available without a prescription and cheaper on the black market. What you are getting at a disensary, and what you are paying a premium for, is KNOWLEDGE of the product and it's effects. There is a large spectrum, some pot will make you tired, some will give you energy, some will make you hungry. Julio on the corner doesn't know what he's got, just that it's "good shit"...so you buy and try, and figure it out. The dispensary will be able to tell you exactly what each strain is known for so someone who uses it as treatment can cure what ails them.
A typical pothead just wants a good buzz, and will take what they can get, and will get it cheaper (even the real good stuff) on the street rather from the dispensary.
People think that recreational pot is going to bring states and governments money. This is so untrue. Yes some people will go to the legit places, but there is already such a massive distribution network in place that DOESN'T jack the price with taxes and overhead, not to mention it is literally the easiest inebriant to produce yourself (poppies for opium are right there with it- hey, they're both schedule 1, whadaya know!) that within a decade of full legalization there will be NO money in pot as a business. Get in/get out early when it happens folks....
It will be like tomatoes.
You'll go to Mahoney's and get your Indica starters to put out in the garden along with everyone else who likes it.
At that point the whole bloated overpriced American grower scam will die. When I started smoking in 70, it was all from Mexico, Jamaica, Colombia or occasional Thai,
Vietnamese was really good and a Lurp I knew smuggled a bunch of packs of 'Park Lane" back after his combat tour ended. It was like a pack of Camels only weed.
And it was fairly cheap. I sold ounces for 15 to 30 bucks for a few years. It is funny to think that third world peasant growers made a better product at a much lower price.
That's what I really look forward to, the greed head collapse.
Head trauma and knee injuries
... caused by excessive hacky sacking.
Also as Whit showed above, an uptick in carpal tunnel due to excessive pearl clutching could also occur.
Just got back from Denver. Run while you still can!
Just got back from a trip to Denver. I have seen the future and it is horrible. You wouldn't believe how cheesy the puns used for dispensary names can be.
Better or worse than hair salons?
[n/t]
that's a sure way to attract
that's a sure way to attract the wrong crowd
Yes, don't they know that one
Yes, don't they know that one hit of the Devil's Plant can turn even the gentlest soul into a cold blooded murderer?
Birthplace of Franklin
Isn't 21 Milk the "Birthplace of Franklin" building?
I think 21 is next door to
I think 21 is next door to the Birthplace of Franklin building. Of course, Old South is the only building around there that bears any resemblance to the city in his day, since it all burned down in 1872.
Maybe
But you know Benny used to get fly on chiba when he was housing his favorite concubines: elderly women what with the glaucoma and arthritis and all.
But what about the people
Yes, so glad they brought up accessibility to people with cars. Finally someone is thinking about those who are too lazy to walk the one block from the subway or those who think its a smart idea to drive in such a pedestrian heavy area that was not designed for cars.
I guess we should move The Old South Meeting House, which is right near this dispensary, to a suburban area with easier parking too. We must accommodate these dumb and dangerous people at all costs!
What a stupid comment....
You do know this is a MEDICAL DISPENSARY, meaning its patrons have MEDICAL issues which may limit their mobility.
This isn't a cafe in Amsterdam and ya, a lot of pothead tend to be lazy.
Probably not a good idea to
Probably not a good idea to encourage people to drive high, either. I don't have a quibble with people driving downtown, I just don't want them to be stoned (or drunk, or asleep) when they do it.
Guess we shouldn't allow any
Guess we shouldn't allow any pharmacies that aren't in walkable locales from selling prescriptions that impair driving abilities then, right?
Plenty of free parking in the bike lane right out front
I mean its not like the police are going to ticket anyone that parks there, have at it!
Drivers also help themselves
Drivers also help themselves to parking on the sidewalk on that block too because illegally taking over the bike lane apparently isn't enough.
Lazy?
Actually, it's entirely possible that walking one block from the subway could be a problem for someone who's sick enough to require medication.
Just wanted to put it out there that not everyone who drives/is driven is a lazy sod.
It's desperate grasping-at
It's desperate grasping-at-straws by the Reefer Madness crowd; a Hail Mary to try and stop the dispensary from being built. I'd just ignore it, or laugh.
Was there this kind worry
Was there this kind worry about drugs and drug users when the Walgreens went downtown? Are people worried about the dozens of cvs stores which distribute drugs much more addictive and harmful than marijuana?
That is a ridiculous analogy
Whats next, you'll compare crack to coffee, their both stimulants.
Why is it ridiculous? This is
Why is it ridiculous? This is a medical dispensary. Do you think the opiates distributed by pharmacies are less harmful than medical marijuana? If you so you need to start reading up on opiate addiction and abuse - it's dangerous stuff
While "medical marijuana" can help
People with serious illnesses, I'd dare you to check in in a year and see what kind of dire medical conditions most medical marijuana users are being "treated" for. I'm predicting a lot of nebulous "anxiety" "depression" etc. In the states where it's legal already, the bar for getting a prescription is very, very low. So please don't talk about it like its insulin or chemo drugs, ok?
That's true
Pot is pretty much harmless, and prescription opiates are some of the most addictive and harmful drugs around. It is ridiculous to compare them.
CVS is a pharmacy and
CVS is a pharmacy and dispenses things like codeine, morphine, and oxycontin. Yes, much more addictive and harmful stuff than pot. Pharmacies like that are even burglarized from time to time by addicts looking to steal those things.
Yet you don't see the Reefer Madness nitwits shouting over those stores going in.
And that Walgreens sells alcoholic beverages, too!
CVS And Wags Dispense Oxycontin And Many Other Narcotics ...
... that have a higher street value than an ounce of marijuana. Is there indeed, a problem with people being robbed while leaving those dispensaries?
proximity to 2 major garages...
Google street view, with annotation:
https://twitter.com/votejed/status/618852448363499520
Sorry to link elsewhere, but you can't upload pix to the commenting system.
hot tip
On Twitter, click on three dots icon (web version), click "Embed Tweet", copy the link that appears, then paste into text box here on Uhub, then select "Filtered HTML" from the drop down box below the comment box. The server will convert it to a tweet that will display in line. (Don't worry if it doesn't display in preview, it will once it's posted)
Like this:
But I bet all the nay-sayers
But I bet all the nay-sayers are ok w/ bars and liquor stores. Jesus people it's pot not meth. American needs to grow up.