Shared interests are abundant between the state’s fledgling medical marijuana industry and the proponents of a 2016 ballot proposal to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Under the ballot question going before Massachusetts voters this November, organizations that run medical marijuana dispensaries or previously applied for a dispensary license would get the first opportunity to apply to run a commercial pot shop. The ballot question also includes a provision allowing for a licensed organization to operate medical and commercial marijuana businesses at a shared location.

Two applicants previously tried to open medical marijuana dispensaries in Westford earlier this year.

Businesses Seven Point and Nature’s Remedy both met the town’s qualifications to open a dispensary in Westford, but withdrew their applications to avoid a negative decision after selectmen indicated back in May that they would not vote in support of a letter of non-opposition to allow the companies to move forward in the state’s regulatory process.

The proposed location for the Nature’s Remedy facility was near the Littleton border at 317 Littleton Road. The proposed facility for Seven Point was at 3 Lan Drive near Cornerstone Square on Route 110.

Westford voters approved the medical marijuana ballot question in the 2012 state election with 7,548 votes in favor and 5,071 votes against, according to official election results.

Littleton voters approved the 2012 medical marijuana ballot question with 3,365 votes in favor and 1,873 votes against.

The area has two of the six medical marijuana dispensaries already existing in the state nearby in Ayer and Lowell.

Many legalization proponents say the language was crafted to facilitate the establishment of a new commercial marijuana sector in a safe and efficient way. They argue that the medical dispensary applicants would have already undergone a Department of Public Health background check and have plans for facility management, logistics and security.

“We wanted to piggyback for a year on the process that’s already occurring through the Department of Public Health,” said Jim Borghesani, spokesman for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, the pro-legalization ballot committee. “We want to help make it an orderly transition from an unregulated, ungoverned market to a taxed market. This will help with the transition so everything isn’t front-loaded at once.”

Click here for a list of donors to the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

Click here for information on licensed and provisionally licensed dispensaries.

Click here for a full list of dispensary applicants and links to their application documents.

State Sen. Jason Lewis, D-Winchester, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Health and the Special Senate Committee on Marijuana, said the language in the ballot question and the ties between medical marijuana and commercial marijuana interests raise concerns.

“One of the problems is essentially this giveaway to the medical marijuana industry,” Lewis said. “Cities and towns that have gone through the process of approving the siting of a medical marijuana facility in their community have never envisioned this as a location where recreational sales of marijuana could be taking place. They did it with an understanding that patients with legitimate medical conditions would come to get medication. They didn’t envision that a person who wants to smoke or vape or dab to get high would come there.”

Ballot proponents and medical industry representatives, however, have argued that it would be very unlikely for a registered medical marijuana dispensary to go against the will of its host community.

Another potential sticking point Lewis envisions is the existing requirement that medical marijuana dispensaries be run by nonprofit organizations. For-profit entities couldn’t legally sell products that aren’t taxed. Commercial marijuana sales would be subject to excise and sales taxes, while Massachusetts does not tax medical marijuana sales.

Medical marijuana dispensaries seeking to also offer commercial, recreational pot products would need to restructure, Borghesani said. The language in the ballot question outlines a process for a medical marijuana dispensary’s board of directors to follow.

“They would have to reorganize as a for-profit or spin off a separate company as a for-profit,” Borghesani said.

Industry perspectives

Chris Edwards, executive director of Alternative Therapies Inc., which runs a dispensary in Salem, said it’s too soon to speculate about medical dispensaries branching out into commercial marijuana businesses.

“We don’t even know if it will exist. I don’t think we can make any predictions,” he said. “I think once this is a law we can talk about it.”

Many of his industry peers are already financially backing the ballot initiative.

State campaign finance records show several organizations and individuals in the medical marijuana industry in Massachusetts have cumulatively donated thousands to the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. Donors include the Beacon Compassion Center, which has provisional approval for a Framingham dispensary and is pursuing another dispensary site in New Bedford; Green Partners Management, an LLC linked to Sage Cannabis, which has provisional approval for a Milford cultivation center and a Cambridge dispensary; Xiphias Wellness, which attempted to open dispensaries in Fall River and Westport; and executives from Ermont, an organization in the final stages of approval to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Quincy.

Kevin Gilnack, executive director of the Commonwealth Dispensary Association, a medical marijuana industry organization, has also donated to the campaign seeking to legalize recreational marijuana.

“The CDA and our members are working tirelessly to ensure the success of the Medical Use of Marijuana Program and to provide patients with safe access to medicine as quickly as possible,” Gilnack stated. “However, we recognize that the 2016 ballot question is coming and we have worked to ensure that it protects the existing medical program and establishes a robust regulatory framework that enhances public health and safety. If Massachusetts is going to address the failed policy of prohibition and legalize marijuana for adult use, I believe that the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol provides the most responsible path forward.”

Some dispensary organizations, including Patriot Care, have said they only plan to offer medical marijuana products. Industry sources have said it’s difficult to gauge how many medical dispensaries would be interested in also offering commercial, recreational sales.

Former Department of Public Health staffer Dan Delaney, a Boston lobbyist who represents Patriot Care and other medical marijuana organizations, is working independently to oppose the ballot initiative. Delaney said his lobbying clients aren’t connected to that effort.

“I’m agnostic on whether recreational adult use is a good thing or not, but I find this specific ballot measure an awful piece of legislation,” he said. “It ties the hands of cities and towns. It doesn’t allow them to have a hand in zoning, so anyplace zoned for medical marijuana is automatically zoned for recreational.”

Cities and towns seeking to block a commercial marijuana facility would have to do so by having voters pass a local referendum.

Markets and patients

Under the proposal, groups that applied for a medical dispensary license before Oct. 15, 2015, would have the first chance to apply for a license to commercially sell marijuana for recreational use. After Jan. 1, 2018, a new state board would issue licenses by lottery among qualified applicants.

Delaney expects that given the tight timeframe, the market advantage for medical dispensary operators would be fairly minimal. He also doesn’t think the market for medical marijuana would be adversely impacted, but that patients could be affected.

“I think patients who need marijuana for medical use, particularly patients looking for low-THC strains for pain and seizures, I think those patients are going to have a harder time being recognized as patients and not being lumped in with this broader use,” he said. “It may add to the stigma patients feel and may add difficulty to getting strains of marijuana that are medically effective and don’t get you high.”

Borghesani believes there would continue to be a strong market for medical marijuana products if Massachusetts were to legalize commercial sales.

“First of all, medical sales would continue to be non-taxed,” he said. “Some of the product offerings will probably differ and some medical marijuana patients would prefer to get certain products that non-medical dispensaries wouldn’t offer.”

Nichole Snow, executive director of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, said her group’s advisory board will meet in the coming months to discuss potential impacts that could result from the ballot question. The MPAA, an organization that represents medical marijuana patients, is neutral on the ballot question, Snow said.

The Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts, a committee opposing the marijuana ballot question, has suggested big-money corporate interests are leading the push for the initiative.

“Generally, one thing we’ve talked about extensively is that Massachusetts has already decriminalized marijuana, people aren’t being arrested for possession of marijuana in Massachusetts and there’s access for people who need it for health and medical reasons,” said Corey Welford, a spokesman for the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts. “This ballot question is about allowing the billion-dollar commercial marijuana industry to come and market and sell these products.”

Geoffrey Reilinger, CEO of Compassionate Organics, an organization working to gain approval for a medical marijuana dispensary in Allston, said he supports the concept of legalizing marijuana for recreational use, but hasn’t donated to the campaign.

“My feeling about recreational is that I’m about access,” said Reilinger, who has used marijuana for years to treat his multiple sclerosis symptoms. “I’m certain, just like there’s an enormous population of people with undiagnosed mental illness, there’s an enormous population of people who don’t want to get on the state marijuana database and don’t want the stigma associated with medical marijuana.”

He added that he has given no thought to the potential of expanding into commercial sales should the ballot question pass.

“I’m focused on medical right now and don’t want to confuse or cloud that in any way,” he said.

-- Gerry Tuoti is the Regional Newsbank Editor for GateHouse Media New England. Email him at gtuoti@wickedlocal.com or call him at 508-967-3137. Reporter Alexander Silva contributed to this story.