In Salem, Mayor Kim Driscoll wrote in a letter to the state she had “no qualms” about Alterative Therapies Group joining the city’s business community, adding that the company had offered to donate $50,000 a year for traffic mitigation and health and wellness programs.

Dr. Dori Zaleznik , commissioner of Newton’s Health & Human Services Department, testified at city meetings that she was strongly supportive of medical marijuana.

Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch sent a letter of support to the state endorsing the application of Ermont, a medical marijuana dispensary that plans to open there later this summer.


Less than a decade ago, anybody could have been arrested for possessing a marijuana cigarette in Massachusetts. But since 2008, when voters overwhelmingly approved the drug’s decriminalization, the conversation about marijuana has radically shifted from law enforcement’s view that pot is a gateway drug to voters creating new public policies for it.

Seattle Seahawks-themed marijuana cupcakes are displayed at the Queen Anne Cannabis Club in Seattle. REUTERS/Jason Redmond

In 2012, 63 percent of state residents voted to allow medical marijuana dispensaries to help people with debilitating medical conditions. Now, after more than a year of creating frameworks to evaluate and establish the dispensaries, the state last week announced the first 20 companies it has selected to receive dispensary licenses.

North, south, and west of Boston, dispensaries will be located in Ayer, Brockton, Brookline, Haverhill, Lowell, Milford, Newton, Plymouth, Quincy, and Salem. Some communities where several applicants applied — such as Framingham and Revere — were not allotted a dispensary.

While the dispensaries still need to apply for special permits from the host cities, most are moving forward with their business plans. The dispensaries have proposed similar operational standards: Most marijuana will be grown in rural industrial warehouses and then brought to retail dispensaries, where patients who have approved medical cards can receive up to 10 ounces every 60 days.


Most dispensaries are planning to offer dozens of strains of marijuana, along with hashish and tinctures — or liquids extracted from pot. In addition, the retailers will offer edibles ranging from baked goods, butters, and oils to marijuana-infused water.

With the state’s announcement of the 20 dispensary locations, opposition seems limited.

Wayne Sampson, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association , which opposed legalizing medical marijuana, said law enforcement is now working to uphold the new law.

“We’ve already had this argument and we lost it, so we now have to move on,” said Sampson, a retired Shrewsbury police chief.

In a statement, Dr. Ronald Dunlap, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society and a cardiologist in Weymouth, said there is insufficient scientific information about the safety of marijuana when used for medicinal purposes.

“Patients should remember that marijuana lacks the rigorous testing of drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration; that claims for its effectiveness have not been scientifically proven; and, that it poses health risks of toxins and cognitive impairment, the last condition being especially risky for young patients,” he said.

While medical marijuana is legal in 20 states and in Washington, D.C., health insurers have declined to add the drug to their medical coverage because the federal government still classifies it as a controlled substance.

Matthew Allen, executive director of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, said the lack of an insurance subsidy is an important issue to patients, particularly because many people with conditions such as multiple sclerosis and cancer already face significant health care costs, and in many cases have limited income.


“Because cost can be a significant barrier to safe access for patients, the price of medicine that will be available at dispensaries is one of our main concerns,” said Allen, whose organization lobbied for the legalization of medical marijuana in the state.

Dr. Karen Munkacy, a California-licensed anesthesiologist whose proposal to open a dispensary on Washington Street in Newton was approved last week, said she believes marijuana will provide medicinal benefits.

“Compared to narcotics for pain, marijuana may produce the same results in certain conditions but it does so with far fewer side effects. In particular for the effects of chemotherapy, its antinausea activity as well as its pain-relieving activity is pretty unique,” said Munkacy, who is planning to cultivate marijuana in a former hockey rink in Essex and sell it to patients in prepackaged containers.

Peter Hayashi of Newton said he was relieved to hear that he will be able to buy medical marijuana legally near his home. Hayashi has allodynia, a condition in which normal sensations cause pain. A former neuropsychologist, he started buying marijuana illegally several years ago after he realized that it provided pain relief.

“Now I don’t have to go to the black market and spend money that goes to who knows where,” said Hayashi. “The money will stay locally, and I’m excited that the marijuana will be tested, and I’ll know what I’m buying.”


Ermont plans to offer shuttle buses from the Quincy Center MBTA station for patients who need to get to its planned dispensary on Ricciuti Drive. According to its application, Ermont projects to sell marijuana to patients for $350 an ounce, and expects to have nearly 49,000 patient visits during its first year, producing $3.5 million in net sales.

Ermont met with Quincy Mayor Tom Koch early in the process.

“They were professional, serious, and clearly understood the needs of the community,” said Koch’s spokesman, Chris Walker. “At this point, the mayor is looking forward to working through an agreement that we hope will provide substantive benefit to the city.”

On the streets of Quincy, news of the coming dispensary was greeted with mixed reactions.

“I’m not happy about it,” said Karen Farrell, who has lived in the Wollaston area for more than 30 years. “I think we have enough problems in Quincy with drugs and the goings on. I think this will draw more of that element in.”

Robert Sullivan, president of the Brockton City Council, said he was not surprised that his city was one of only two municipalities in Plymouth County to have a dispensary approved, since Brockton is the largest city in the county and had three applicants vying for licenses.

“The only thing I care about is making sure the taxpayers and constituents are served by a protective zoning overlay district,” he said. “I know myself and the other 10 people on the City Council understood the seriousness of this. We didn’t rush into it. We took the opportunity to do a moratorium, and we spent months contemplating the best location and listening to the desires of residents and constituents of Brockton.”


Mathew Muratore, chairman of the Plymouth Board of Selectmen, said he expected Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts Inc., the dispensary business headed by former US representative William D. Delahunt, to uphold the law.

“For me personally, there’s always lingering concerns with young adults and access, but these are the cards we’ve been dealt, and we’re hoping the company will do its part to ensure that it won’t get into the wrong hands,” Muratore said. “I think drugs in schools are an issue everywhere and we hope this won’t contribute to that.”

In Brookline, 75 percent of voters favored legalizing medical marijuana in the 2012 election, and the strong support was one of the main reasons New England Treatment Access Inc. sought a location in the town, said Kevin Fisher, the company’s executive director.

New England Treatment Access has been approved by the state for dispensaries in Northampton and Brookline. Fisher said he hopes to open in Brookline in early August, and the company already has signed a lease at 1416 Beacon St. near Coolidge Corner.

Alan Balsam, Brookline’s director of public health and human services, said representatives of the company have been accessible to public officials and, based on that and the company’s philanthropic roots, he thinks it has the potential to create a model dispensary in Brookline.

But Balsam said the town still has a few more steps to take before awarding a license. In the coming weeks, he will present a framework to selectmen to regulate dispensaries. Balsam said he wants to ensure that the dispensary has a plan for providing medical marijuana to the poor, as well as those who are too sick or disabled to go to a dispensary.

Balsam said the town also will try to regulate any food-based products that a dispensary could infuse with marijuana.

“We’re not going to allow candy or anything that would appeal to children,” he said. “We probably will allow baked foods.”

In Ayer, where Central Ave Compassionate Care Inc. was awarded a license from the state to open a dispensary near the downtown, Selectmen chairman Gary Luca said he thinks there is solid public support for the dispensary.

During the last year, Luca said he has been approached by some residents — including elderly people with cancer — who supported access to medical marijuana.

“I’m for it; I think I can speak for my wife that she’s for it,” Luca said. “It’s just another option for people that have pain.”

Globe correspondent Cara Bayles and Brock Parker of the Globe staff contributed to this article. Steven A. Rosenberg can be reached at srosenberg@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @WriteRosenberg.