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Milk Street dispensary gets city OK to sell recreational marijuana as well

The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved a plan by Patriot Care to add fun pot to the wares at its Milk Street dispensary, which had been selling products just to people who have prescriptions for the past five years.

The dispensary, the first to open in Boston - and originally with a promise not to sell recreational marijuana - also needs the approval of the state Cannabis Control Commission.

Recreational users will have a separate entrance on Hawley Street from the medical users entering on Milk Street. For at least the first six months of operation, recreational marijuana users will be limited to sales by appointment only.

Among the proposal's supporters: The concern that operates the Old State House, which said Patriot Care has been "a really great neighbor."

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Comments

And this is why, in addition to the lobbying against home grow, I’ll take my med card up to Maine. Massachusetts has laid the ground work for how NOT to run a medical marijuana program and I hope other states take note.

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I use edibles for a sleep and anxiety disorder. I get them at dispensaries in southern Maine, where they accept Massachusetts medical cannabis cards. They usually have a better selection than most Massachusetts dispensaries, and the prices are about 1/3 of what I pay in the Boston area. We can learn a lot from Maine.

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Why would you lobby AGAINST growing at home?

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There's big $ invested in the weed business. They don't want competition. They lobby hard to keep home grown illegal.

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Yup. Which is a stupid fight to pick. You can grow your own vegetables at home, you can even raise livestock, you can brew your own beer. But the grocery store and the packie seem to be doing just fine. I'm sure the pot shops will do just fine with some people choosing to grow their own at home.

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They better step up their selection. Compared to other dispensaries their products are pretty subpar. Especially their edibles.

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A medical marijuana dispensary doesn't need 'selection'. It's medicine.

As long as they sell one kind of leaf, and one kind of edible, that's enough to administer the prescribed dose of THC.

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Sells more than one brand of aspirin, and cough drops come in multiple flavors.

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Those are not prescription. Ask the pharmacist how many varieties of prednisone are behind the counter, and there won't be very many. Perhaps one brand name and one generic, in pills and capsules of varying dosage.

That's a big difference between consumer-drive recreational sales, and treatment-driven prescription sales. If your medical dispensary is offering many kinds and flavors of weed, then it's not working like a medical dispensary. It's working like a recreational store.

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While you need a "prescription" for medical cannabis, the doctor isn't writing you a script for a specific product the way they do when they write a prescription for a pharmaceutical product. How many different forms of ibuprofen does a typical pharmacy carry, including those only available by prescription?

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It seems that you don't know a lot about cannabis and its effects. There isn't a one sized fits all but thanks for playing.

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They better step up their selection.

PC comes in waves. I think they are finally 'getting it' when it comes to their grow. Last few weeks have been meh, but it usually means that there's some about to drop and the menu will be full soon. The gaps are getting smaller and smaller...

As far as selection.. I've been to lots of other places around the area. Its hit or miss with all of them. It depends on the growing season or where they are in their cycle.

Also depends on what you are looking for, I've gone into some places and virtually no flower, but have edibles up the wazoo. Its just up to the grow.

(remember kids, not everything that is grown is sold, some of it is disposed of because it does not meet guidelines or quality. So you have a few rows of plants do that, and your selection dies)

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I don't know why, but this really bothers me
"The dispensary, the first to open in Boston - and originally with a promise not to sell recreational marijuana"

This place only got zoning approval by swearing up & down to their neighbors they'll be a pharmacy only. Then, as soon as they're given the license they turn around and give the finger to all their neighbors because they see the $ opportunity? And, despite their pledge/promise to the neighborhood, the city is allowing them to proceed. What the hell?

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They've been selling for 5 years, so that's hardly "as soon as they're given the license".

Besides, back when they opened there was a bunch of hysteria about having a pot shop in the neighborhood. Hopefully people have realized by now that these shops are pretty low key and adding recreational options won't ruin the neighborhood. Especially when the more recreational options there are, the less crowding you'll see at the ones that do exist.

That people are trying to be NIMBYs in downtown... you're in a city, you might have to deal with some activity happening around you sometimes.

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If you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't know it was there. it's so discreet. And I agree there was a lot of hysteria about shops opening, which turned out to be a nothing burger.

And thank gosh they are doing this. I was just there last week where the guard at the door had to tell a gaggle of people who obviously were from out of state, that that location is medical only. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've seen the guard shoe someone away for this.

It also makes sense. It looks like Columbia Care (Patriot Care's owner) rents TWO suites there and was trying to sublease the retail space on the lower level. (I know they have a room on the lower level because I see staff go downstairs)

When this was a citizens bank a long time ago, Citizens had both floors. The tellers were with the vault (which you can see inside Patriot Care today) on the upper level. The lower level was the "banking center" if I recall.

It totally makes sense why they are doing it.. See this graphic:

IMAGE(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50696198511_f734c3c895.jpg)

Yellow is their current entrance. The red X would probably be the entrance to the adult use part. And the yellow circle is the retail entrance (or would be). You can even see the staircase going down (blue arrow).

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This is how business is done in the US.

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They lied to the community. End of story.

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There's no harm done to their neighbors whether or not they sell recreationally, so I don't see the problem if they said one thing and did another - no one is actually hurt. Let's save our indignation for the lies that are actually harmful.

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Extending your moral theory a bit, if you marry someone with a promise that you’re not going to engage in sexual relations with anyone other than the person you’re married to, but you go ahead and do it anyhow, no actual physical or economic harm done, so no grounds for outrage, right?

Either you subscribe to the theory that promises mean something or you don’t.

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Extending your moral theory a bit, if you marry someone with a promise that you’re not going to engage in sexual relations with anyone other than the person you’re married to, but you go ahead and do it anyhow, no actual physical or economic harm done, so no grounds for outrage, right?

Either you subscribe to the theory that promises mean something or you don’t.

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Its amazing how people forget. You w3puld think the ZBA's notes on previous meetings might help. Amazing what the right legal team can do.

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The contact highs I get in the garage above TJ Maxx will now be even more legal.

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... visualizing eventual product testing segment on the Christopher Kimball show...

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He posts three or four recipes a week in the Sunday Globe magazine. And EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM has kosher salt as an ingredient, and usually without an amount, just a single line reading: Kosher salt.

It's become the only reason I read his column, to see if he once again specifies kosher salt as an ingredient in every single recipe. He's only let me down once or twice in the past six months.

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I can't think of a single meal I've made in my entire life, that didn't require salt. And it makes sense to specify kosher salt, since it's different in texture and size than other salts. Honestly...I'd be more surprised if a recipe didn't recommend kosher salt these days.

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