{"id":8188,"date":"2018-04-07T23:18:29","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T23:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=15502"},"modified":"2018-04-07T23:18:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T23:18:29","slug":"legal-pot-hot-spot-attleboro-embraces-its-place-on-the-rhode-island-state-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/legal-pot-hot-spot-attleboro-embraces-its-place-on-the-rhode-island-state-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Pot Hot Spot: Attleboro Embraces Its Place On The Rhode Island State Line"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/legal-pot-hot-spot-attleboro-embraces-its-place-on-the-rhode-island-state-line\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Rhode Island\u2019s top medical-marijuana regulator and its three licensed dispensaries disagree about how much of a threat lurks over the line in Massachusetts this summer when retail pot sales become legal there.<\/p>\n<p>The dispensaries say they will lose business as customers opt to buy Bay State cannabis without the hassle of being a state-registered patient.<\/p>\n<p>The additional competition is further reason the dispensaries give for opposing Gov. Gina Raimondo\u2019s plan to quintuple the number of medical cannabis dispensaries in Rhode Island \u2014 from 3 to 15.<\/p>\n<p>While regulator Norman Birenbaum says there are reasons those dispensaries need not worry \u2014 at least not immediately \u2014 one fact is indisputable:<\/p>\n<p><em>Attleboro Mayor Paul Heroux is banking on Rhode Islanders visiting pot shops in his city.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>How many shops? \u201cCertainly more than five,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t have an upper limit as to how many would be a problem&#8230;. We want the revenues. Very simple. It\u2019s all about the revenues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPromising\u201d and \u201cfortunate\u201d is how the mayor describes his city\u2019s proximity to Rhode Island\u2019s densely populated capital region.<\/p>\n<p>In his City Hall office, he enlarges a map on his tablet and runs his finger along Routes 95, 1 and 1a, cutting down through Pawtucket, Providence and East Providence. \u201cRight here, by virtue of our location, it just puts us in a really good place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Heroux sees it, \u201cThe will of the people said they want this here in Massachusetts and here in Attleboro. So okay, fine, if that\u2019s what the citizens want, that\u2019s what they can have. I\u2019m not going to stand in the way of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How many marijuana stores and grow centers eventually open in this old manufacturing city of 45,000 \u2014 perhaps the most receptive community to recreational marijuana so far along Rhode Island\u2019s border \u2014 is actually up to the City Municipal Council.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s now drafting an ordinance to govern the growing and selling of marijuana. And Council member Todd Kobus, the council\u2019s zoning committee chairman, says most council members want to move slower than Heroux.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a lot of concern of this changing the culture of the city,\u201d says Kobus. \u201cI don\u2019t want Attleboro to become the new Amsterdam or Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Attleboro, like many communities across the Bay State, has imposed a temporary moratorium on recreational marijuana to give local officials time to draft zoning regulations for the new industry. But those bans are expected to expire this summer or a few months later.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, marijuana businesses are still able to move ahead, seeking local approval by requesting permits for medical-marijuana operations first, knowing that state law will allow them to convert later to recreational outlets.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s been the case in Attleboro, where five establishments \u2014 proposed grow sites, stores or a combination \u2014 have received preliminary approvals of one kind or another in a long process requiring several steps.<\/p>\n<p>Says Kobus: \u201cIf we just open the floodgates, it\u2019s difficult to close that once we let people run rampant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Right now, the council is looking to approve five marijuana businesses, says Kobus. If things go smoothly, \u201cperhaps there will be more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Mayor Heroux says he wants the city\u2019s new regulations \u201cto be as permissive as possible<\/p>\n<p>for two reasons. The first is we want to welcome the business here. But the second is if we\u2019re too stringent, it opens us up to a lawsuit\u201d from rejected marijuana applicants.<\/p>\n<p>(Last month in Arkansas, a judge issued an injunction preventing the state\u2019s medical-marijuana commission from awarding five cultivation permits after other businesses argued they\u2019d been unfairly passed over.)<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/420-news\/international-cannabis-news\/legal-pot-hot-spot-attleboro-embraces-its-place-on-the-rhode-island-state-line\/\">Legal Pot Hot Spot: Attleboro Embraces Its Place On The Rhode Island State Line<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rhode Island\u2019s top medical-marijuana regulator and its three licensed dispensaries disagree about how much of a threat lurks over the&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/420-news\/international-cannabis-news\/legal-pot-hot-spot-attleboro-embraces-its-place-on-the-rhode-island-state-line\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/420-news\/international-cannabis-news\/legal-pot-hot-spot-attleboro-embraces-its-place-on-the-rhode-island-state-line\/\">Legal Pot Hot Spot: Attleboro Embraces Its Place On The Rhode Island State Line<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1616,9,1,3],"tags":[4184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}