Number of recreational marijuana businesses in Fall River could triple today

BOSTON – Fall River’s total number of businesses licensed for recreational marijuana may grow from one to three pending a possible Thursday afternoon vote by the state’s Cannabis Control Commission.

State cannabis officials are scheduled to meet in Boston at 1 p.m. Thursday to discuss a list of pending applications from companies trying to open adult use marijuana dispensaries throughout Massachusetts. Appearing on that list are Hope Heal Health, which opened a medical dispensary on West Street in February, and Greener Leaf, which intends to convert a former laundromat on Rhode Island Avenue into a dispensary.

While both items are only scheduled for discussion, they are listed on the agenda under “staff recommendations on provisional license applications.”

For each application, the CCC has 90 days to determine whether a provisional license will be issued or denied. Before that decision is made, commission members have to determine if all four of each applicant’s submitted packets are completed. Applicants also have to undergo a background check facilitated through a security contractor.

Though a license means a dispensary has been approved for recreational sales, those sales won’t start immediately. Once approved, applicants are required to pay a license fee, undergo further inspection, and undergo more security requirements like fingerprinting staff and registering marijuana establishment agents. In the case of Greener Leaf, construction of the actual dispensary would still have to be completed.

If the businesses successfully complete these parts of the process, they go back before the CCC to receive their final license. Once approved, the commission would then issue a notice for the applicant to commence full operations.

Northeast Alternatives became the city’s first dispensary to be approved by the state for recreational sales and opened for adult-use retail in January.

Representatives of Hope Heal Health, which converted two floors of a 172,000-square-foot former mill into a dispensary and cultivation center, said upon opening for medical sales that they planned on expanding into recreational sales in May.

Because of the crowded field of businesses hoping to open dispensaries in Fall River, getting a license from the state serves as an advantage to applicants trying to get a head start on local competitors. Mayor Jasiel Correia II approved Aura Cannabis Company’s letter of non-opposition and community host agreement last month, bringing the number of locally approved marijuana retailers and processors to 11. If the CCC approves all of the applications, Fall River could have as many as eight marijuana dispensaries.

In a public meeting held last week, Giving Tree Health Center CEO Brian Bairos said construction of his proposed Pleasant Street dispensary could begin in May with sales beginning possibly as early as late summer.