UPDATE: “I support the law that establishes medical marijuana dispensaries, but the qualifications to receive the drug must be strict. There must be a system in place to allow residents to report any illegal or unsavory activity they may witness at these places, as well as a strict process for those in charge of the dispensaries to grow and distribute their product to only those who have a doctor’s prescription” – In a statement to BostInno from State Representative and Boston mayoral candidate Marty Walsh.
UPDATE: “Voters have decided that medical marijuana and dispensaries are legal and it is now up to the city to come up with thoughtful zoning requirements to ensure that dispensaries are not concentrated in just a few neighborhood or schools. I have a woman who works on my campaign who has a very close friend that is battling MS, and medical marijuana has played a vital role in reducing her pain and dealing with the disease. And when you talk to people who need it for those purposes you understand why we don’t want to restrict it.” – In a statement to BostInno from the John Connolly mayoral campaign.
A group of medical specialists spearheading a campaign to open a medical marijuana growing facility in the central Massachusetts town of Winchendon, could be eyeing Boston as the location for a subsequent dispensary.
The Winchendon site in question, 10,000 square feet of space primed to nurture and harvest the controversial remedy, once manufactured “the little green plastic parachute man.”
As of now Massachusetts General Law 369, an act for the humanitarian use of medical marijuana, has yet to specify any rules and regulations surrounding growth and cultivation facilities, though will do so within 120 days of medical marijuana being enacted into law. Individuals, though, who can prove “financial hardship, a physical incapacity to access reasonable transportation, or the lack of a treatment center within a reasonable distance of the patient’s residence” may be issued a cultivation registration to grow their own plants worth “a 60-day supply.”
Winchendon Town Manager James M. Kreidler fully supports the proposition to turn the now-decrepit plastics factory into a blossoming mill to promote its rural heritage and commitment to farming.
“We are a right-to-farm community,” noted Krediler in an article from the Telegram & Gazette.
The doctor-led group boasts the expertise of an ear, nose, and throat specialist as well as that of a nutritionist, both of whom, along with other constituents, agree that plants fostered at the Winchendon location would best serve Boston where they hope to open a dispensary in the future to take advantage of the city’s “many medical facilities and other facilities that could use its services.”
Currently 158 applications have passed the first round of the dispensary approval process, though it’s unclear as to weather Kreidler and his associates are among them. BostInno reached out to his office for confirmation, but have yet to receive a response.
As the scramble to establish growth facilities and a customer base before any strict law is willed into fruition, a 2008 video has surfaced of Massachusetts Representative and current Boston mayoral candidate Marty Walsh expressing his strong opposition to the decriminalization of marijuana citing a snowball effect that — while a small amount of weed may be harmless — could lead to similar sentiments among drug addicts about oxycontin, for example, and that having a small amount isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Walsh recently garnered the most votes in the preliminary election for Mayor of Boston –with fellow contender John Connolly in his rear view mirror — taking 18% of the votes cast and narrowing the field down to two.
[Image via Telegram & Gazette]
