Elliot Mercier

With the Cannabis Control Commission getting more requests for establishment approval as the days go on, it’s easy to see that the legal marijuana industry is going to do nothing but bloom for next couple of years. You might as well get used to seeing new weed stores popping up on the streets of Worcester and surrounding towns, because opening up in these urban jungles is preferable to Boston or anywhere on the Cape.

The biggest reason might not surprise you if you’ve lived in Massachusetts for a while. With a little digging online, statistics say that the average rent in Boston is about $3,078 per month. Compare that to Worcester, whose average rent lies at about $1,315 per month. If it’s that expensive to merely rent a place to live, which is a fairly small area, you can imagine that the cost of running a business could really add up when trying to operate in Boston. So the obvious solution was to come to Worcester, a place that has plenty of opportunity for entrepreneurs, being 66 percent less expensive.

For those wondering, there actually is a lot to go through when it comes to getting a license to sell marijuana. Similar to how a liquor store is opened, there’s a lot of paperwork and land management that has to be meticulously analyzed and approved. Forms like CORI, IVES-4506, Disclosure & Acknowledgement and Release Authorization are all required to even fulfill the mere act of background checking. Then, you go into the specialized tiers of land ownership that will charge $200 for 5,000 interior acres. Lastly, there’s all the little stuff like owning three different types of laboratories, a manufacturing area, a micro-business section, a testing area and transport units. That’s $300 for each, and all of that adding up doesn’t even include the annual licensing fees.

Will there be rules for these new establishments since even legal weed can be a touchy subject? Yes, and it’s fairly similar to how package stores are handled when it comes to the distance between them and churches or schools. In 1985, a law was passed that forbade liquor stores from being within 300 feet of a church or a school. When it comes to a marijuana dispensary, however, the numbers are not the same. While there’s no church standard, dispensaries are currently not allowed to operate within 500 feet of a school. Some might say that’s extreme, but it is something that might change soon considering that this is still a relatively new subject.

Regardless, though, if selling marijuana is to be taken as a legitimate business, owners won’t break any rules and expose children to pot. First impressions are key, so the best we can do is wait and see.