Masschusetts Only Licensing 11 Dispensaries, None in Boston

Massachusetts medical marijuana advocates are in an uproar this week as they have just found out that only 11 medical marijuana dispensaries will be licensed out of a possible 35, and none will be in Boston. 

Thirty-five dispensaries were voter-approved, but only eleven have received the go ahead to open their doors this fall. The health department has also announced that caregivers will only be allowed to provide medical marijuana to a single patient.

The medical marijuana law went into effect on January 1, 2013, and it was well known that if dispensaries were unable to open within 180 days then a clause allowing both patients and caregivers to cultivate their own marijuana would go into effect.  It has now been over 500 days, and patients, who are in dire need of medicine, can’t get the medicine that they so desperately need.

Bill Downing, one of the state’s most widely known caregivers has been forced to stop providing medical marijuana to patients because he recently received a cease and desist letter from the state.  Downing is asking that other activists in Massachusetts join him in a lawsuit he is filing against the health department for being “more concerned with their regulations than they are with the well-being of the citizens of Massachusetts.”