Marijuana Dispensary

In this photo taken Tuesday, May 14, 2013, Medical marijuana vials are displayed at the Venice Beach Care Center medical marijuana dispensary in Venice, Calif.

(Damian Dovarganes/AP)

BOSTON - Two companies have received licenses to open medical marijuana dispensaries in Western Massachusetts, but it will be another six months before they open for business.

The licenses, dispensary owners say, are the latest hurdle they have cleared, but not the last hurdle. Before they can open their doors, the dispensaries must receive local permits, build their facilities and grow the marijuana.

"Early August is a very aggressive, everything goes perfectly timeline," said Kevin Fisher, chief operating officer of New England Treatment Access, which plans to open dispensaries in Northampton and Brookline.

The other Western Massachusetts licensee is Debilitating Medical Condition Treatment Centers in Holyoke, run by Dr. Samuel Mazza and Heriberto Flores, president of the New England Farm Workers Council. Statewide, 20 facilities received licenses.

Former State Sen. Brian Lees, a board member of Debilitating Medical Condition Treatment Centers, said now that the licensing phase is over, "the real work begins." That company is also targeting an August opening.

The first challenge for the licensed facilities is getting local approval. The state took local support into account in awarding the licenses. But state permission does not override the local zoning and planning processes, so dispensaries must still work with the host cities to get building permits.

New England Treatment Access plans to cultivate and process the marijuana in Franklin and open its Western Massachusetts dispensary at 296 Nonotuck St. in Northampton.

Northampton planning director Wayne Feiden said the city already put in place zoning ordinances for a medical marijuana dispensary. However, the company must now file for approval of the dispensary site. "They have a right to locate in the site. We're not going to talk about good use or bad use. We want to talk about parking, traffic mitigation, security," Feiden said.

Feiden said there is likely to be a high volume of traffic at the dispensary, since it is currently one of only two licensees in Western Massachusetts. City planning officials want to make sure the site can accommodate the traffic and determine whether any changes are needed to mitigate traffic. They will be talking about how to put security in place without making the site unattractive. "It's the difference between a bank and pawn shop. We want it to look more like a bank," Feiden said.

In Holyoke, the City Council is still debating an ordinance that would govern the medical marijuana facility. On Tuesday, after a lengthy discussion, the City Council failed to pass by the needed majority ordinances that limited dispensaries to industrial zones downtown and determined which city board would regulate the such facilities.

However, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse said even if the council does not pass an ordinance, the dispensary could still open, using state regulations regarding where it can be located.

The dispensary currently plans to both cultivate and dispense the marijuana at 181 Appleton Street in Holyoke.

Once the permitting is set, dispensaries will have to build the facilities and grow the marijuana. The companies must build a cultivation center, in which to grow the marijuana, a processing center, to turn it into sellable products, and a dispensary, to sell it. For legal reasons, the entire process must be done by the company in Massachusetts. There must also be high levels of security, which could include things like cameras, motion sensors and locks with fingerprint scanning. "There will be different floors in a facility and they all have to be retrofitted," Lees said.

Fisher said state law requires that the marijuana be grown from seeds. Given the length of time it takes to grow marijuana, Fisher said the dispensary will have to put seeds in the ground by April 1 to open by August. That provides time for the seeds to grow into plants and for the plants to be harvested and processed. Fisher said the dispensary will sell two dozen strains of marijuana in different concentrations, and a selection of other products, such as oils, vaporizers, lotions and pills. "This is not some bootstrap startup," Fisher said. "Day one, doors open, we're going to have a full line of cannabis therapy for patients."

Lees' company has proposed a similar time line, with cultivation starting in early April. Like Fisher's group, there will be a variety of products offered – including butter, oil and brownies, according to the group's application to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The licensees also have to go through a final inspection by the Department of Public Health.

New England Treatment Access is planning to hold a series of community forums around Northampton to give the public a chance to talk to dispensary officials. Fisher said the first forum will not be before March, in order to give the dispensary time to get its local permits in order. "We want to be part of the communities," Fisher said.

Another challenge for dispensaries could be banking. News reports have indicated that some banks are wary of accepting money from medical marijuana facilities, since marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Fisher said New England Treatment Access has bank accounts in Colorado and in Massachusetts. Lees said Debilitating Medical Condition Treatment Centers is still working on that.

In the meantime, local law enforcement officials also have work to do to prepare. Northampton Police Chief Russell Sienkiewicz said his department has met with representatives of the Northampton dispensary about their security plan. He will meet with them again to go over things like providing 24-hour security and controlling access.

"It's like any other business that has a highly valued commodity inside their building," Sienkiewicz said.

Sienkiewicz said the police also need to train officers to determine who is legally allowed to possess marijuana. A person with medical marijuana will be required to have the drug packaged in a way that identifies its source and will need an identification card indicating that they are allowed to have it. Law enforcement will have access to a statewide database that says whether a person is registered to possess medical marijuana.

Sienkiewicz said the police will still be able to arrest someone who is, for example, driving under the influence or possessing a baggie of marijuana that is not property identified.

"Those are the nuances we have to deal with," Sienkiewicz said.