Windham adult-use marijuana shops will not be open for months

Although Friday, Oct. 9 is the first day that
adult-use retail stores can sell marijuana in
Maine, Windham's two adult-use retail shops,
Paul's Boutique and JAR Cannabis Company,
which were granted final approval for
Windham town licenses on Tuesday night,
will not be ready for sales for a number of 
months. COURTESY PHOTO

Jar Cannabis Co. to become second adult-use retail when town rescinds Windham RSL’s conditional license

By Ed Pierce                                                              

For those eagerly awaiting the first day in Maine that adult use retail marijuana can legally be sold on Friday, Oct. 9, expectations will need to be tempered. And right here in Windham, it may be months or up to a year before retail adult-use marijuana shops are open and operating.

On Tuesday evening the Windham Town Council gave its final approval for the award of two adult-use retail marijuana licenses, voting to rescind the license of a business that had been awarded a conditional license on Sept. 15, replacing it with another candidate and finalizing the other retail license awarded to Paul’s Boutique.

Windham RSL had been awarded a conditional adult-use marijuana license previously by the council, but information received by the town manager concerning the lease contained in its license application was called into question. During a public hearing Tuesday, Councilors Jarrod Maxfield, David Nadeau, Nicholas Kalogerakis and David Douglass voted 4-0 for a finding of fact that without the submission of a master lease or sublease in the application of Windham RSL, the original vote on Sept. 15 was rescinded and the next highest finisher in their adult-use marijuana retail license scoring system, JAR Cannabis Co., should be awarded the license instead.

The lengthy town and state application hurdles for adult-use retail marijuana and uncertainty about the
licenses though, has led to a significant delay in Windham for adult-use retail marijuana shops being ready to open for business right away.

“We will definitely not be ready by Oct. 9,” said Shaw Dwight, the owner of Paul’s Boutique. “We’ve been positioning to hope to be awarded a license for over a year and discussing this with the town for over a year. Our company has done its due diligence to be professional with the store. It’s now time for my company to start preparing to enter the adult-use market to be successful.”

Dwight said rampant uncertainty about state and municipal regulations, ordinances, applications, and licensing has led to a bottleneck in the wholesale marijuana market right now, resulting in exorbitant prices for a limited number of products available and a poor supply to meet the market demand right now.

According to Dwight, the entire process of growing, drying and trimming marijuana for retail sales also takes time.

He said his company wasn’t ready to invest in a retail cultivation facility to deal with logistical issues and finalize other plans until it knew it was going to have a license and now that it does, the business can move forward. 

“We need to prepare this company for the future, but it will take some time, at least a year,” he said. “We have a conditional license from the state, but now we can go back and get a true license from the state. You can’t put the horse before the cart. We’re just trying to set up a plan that will ensure success.”

Dwight said he feels that not being totally prepared for what lies ahead for the adult-use retail marijuana business in Maine is naïve.

“Being prepared means being able to control reasonable price points, the availability of extracts and
edibles and the consistency to offer a diversity of products,” he said. “We’re not there just yet, but within six months to a year we will be. Now our work truly begins.”

Joel Pepin, who owns JAR Cannabis Company, said he was grateful to have been awarded an adult-use retail license by the council, but like Paul’s Boutique, find themselves in a similar place.

“Now that we’ve gotten local authorization from the town, I think it will take about a month to obtain a license, the state office seems to be moving quickly.”

Pepin said this year many medical marijuana providers have struggled to keep their supplies up for the demand and he expects that to be the case with adult-use as well.

“I don’t know exactly when we will make the transition from medical marijuana to adult-use, but we have two facilities and that could only be a couple of weeks,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of patients who are visiting our existing storefront and we want to make it a smooth transition for them and not alienate our existing patient base.”

According to Pepin, his biggest challenge going forward will be the keep costs low enough for his existing patients.

“We want those patients to be able to shop with us, but they may find that the excise tax and sales tax costs could go up,” he said. “We want our patients to go out the door with products at similar prices.”

Because they are vertically integrated where the products they sell come from their own garden and extraction lab, Pepin said that Jar Cannabis Company may initially be behind a bit in selling edible products, but he expects that to all work out over time.

“We’re aiming to be up and make the transition to adult-use by the end of the year or within the first few months of the new year,” he said. <   

Windham awards two retail marijuana licenses at special town council meeting

By Ed Pierce

Shaw Dwight is the owner of Paul's Boutique
in Windham, one of two businesses that were
awarded adult-use retail marijuana licenses
by the Windham Town Council on Tuesday.
CannaRX Windham also received a retail
license from the town. Retail marijuana
sales open in Maine on Oct. 9.
PHOTO BY ED PIERCE

Capping a long application process and review, the Windham Town Council awarded two adult marijuana retail licenses at a special council meeting on Tuesday evening.

Following a two-hour discussion and lengthy examination of seven different applications and a council vote to clarify the term “retail” as outlined in Windham’s marijuana ordinance, councilors scored each application based upon operational plan, security measures, safety, experience, product handling, any violations on record and other specific criteria.  The top two businesses scoring the highest, Paul’s Boutique and CannaRX Windham RSL, were then awarded provisional one-year retail licenses pending verification of the collection of sales taxes in other communities.

Before any scoring was unveiled, Councilor Clayton Haskell said he would abstain from voting or scoring applicants. 

Prior to scoring each application for the adult-use licenses, each applicant was given three minutes on Zoom to present their last-minute arguments for why they should be awarded a license by the council. Representatives of six of the seven applicants spoke, with each one thanking councilors for their diligence in carefully reviewing volumes of documentation regarding each application.

Windham Town Manager Barry Tibbetts said that each application was well over 100 pages and that the review process was extensive and time consuming.

“Hours were spent reading through them,” Tibbetts said. “Councilors spent more than two days reading applications and I want the public to know that a tremendous amount of work and effort went into getting us to this point tonight.”

During the meeting, town attorney Kristin Collins advised councilors on how to score categories, including how to rate one section of the town ordinance that asked applicants to list retail experience in locations other than in Windham.

Town Council Chairman Jarrod Maxfield said he understood the ordinance term “retail” as having a storefront and clearly defined hours of operation with customers coming and going, but other councilors suggested that they understood “retail” to mean having paid sales taxes for transactions to other communities. A vote was taken, with councilors David Nadeau, Nicholas Kalogerakis, David Douglass, Timothy Nangle and Brett Jones voting for sales tax collection to define “retail” and Maxfield voting for it to mean an actual storefront elsewhere.

Under the scoring system, Paul’s Boutique accumulated a total of 15.58 points, with CannaRX Windham RSL coming in with 14.67 points. Next in line was Jar Co. at 14.33 points, followed by Kind & Co. with 13,67 points, Sticky Bud with 12.75 points, Legal Leaf at 10.25 points and Maine’s Alternative Caring with 9.83 points.

Before a motion was made to award the licenses, Councilor Timothy Nangle told applicants that the
town would ensure details contained in the applications were being adhered to.

“We’re going to hold you to everything you submitted in your application,” Nangle said.

Councilor Brett Jones said he was glad to see the application and review process finally come to an end for the adult-use retail licenses.

“Personally, I would give licenses to all the applicants,” Councilor Brett Jones said. “I don’t feel this is the right way of going about it but that’s my personal opinion. I followed the criteria and made decisions based upon what was in front of me.”

Maxfield said he was grateful to all who participated in the process.

“I just want to say thanks to everyone, to the council, the staff and to the community,” Maxfield said. “We’ve done the best we can.”

Under state law, the first day that adult-use retail marijuana sales may be made is Oct. 9. Under terms of Windham’s marijuana ordinance adopted by councilors in May, successful applicants must pay $2,500 to the town for the adult-use retail licenses.

Previously Tibbetts has said that Windham will use money collected from the licensing fees for substance-abuse education and prevention, but the specifics for that have yet to be worked out by the council.        

Councilors also voted during the special meeting to extend a public hearing regarding the awarding of caregiver licenses and four medical marijuana storefront licenses in town to the council’s Sept. 22 meeting. <       

Windham to issue two adult-use marijuana retail licenses next week

The Windham Town Council will review applicants
and award two adult-use marijuana retail
licenses during a special meeting at the Windham
Town Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 15. COURTESY PHOTO

 By Ed Pierce

A long and complicated road for the Windham Town Council could be in the rear-view mirror next week as decisions about applicants for two adult-use marijuana licenses will finally be determined.

Windham Town Manager Barry A. Tibbetts said that a special meeting of the Windham Town Council will be conducted at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15 at the Windham Town Hall to review applicants for several marijuana business licenses in the town. All other marijuana license applications will be discussed or approved by councilors on Sept. 22.

“These are the two adult use licenses,” Tibbetts said. “By our ordinance we will only award two and those applications per the ordinance were due at the end of July.”

A revised town ordinance addressing the sale of Recreational Adult-Use and Medical Marijuana Storefront facilities, along with business and personal marijuana outdoor cultivation was approved and adopted by Windham town councilors in late May. The new ordinance officially took effect on June 26.

Tuesday’s license review caps a four-year process for the town after voters in Maine approved a statewide referendum in 2016 to legalize marijuana for recreational use for adults over the age of 21. A string of lawsuits and time-consuming legislative reviews further delayed the process to this point, although the state already had an existing medical marijuana program.

There are currently nine marijuana businesses in Windham which will be grandfathered into the town’s existing land use ordinance. The land use ordinance also was approved in May and requires that licensed marijuana facilities have a minimum of 1,000-foot setbacks from schools and a minimum of 250-feet setbacks door to door from day care facilities.

Under the provisions of the new marijuana ordinance, Windham will license seven different kinds of marijuana establishments including two adult use retail stores, a cultivation location, a manufacturing location, a registered medical caregiver cultivation location, home medical caregiver cultivation, a testing facility and a medical marijuana caregiver shop.

The new ordinance prohibits growing plants outdoors and mandates that vendor and personal licenses must be obtained before marijuana can be grown.

Councilors also established an annual town fee structure for marijuana businesses as follows:

** Adult-Use Marijuana Store - $2,500

** Marijuana Cultivation Facility - $1,000

** Marijuana Manufacturing Facility - $1,000

** Medical Marijuana Registered Caregiver – On-site cultivation - $300

** Medical Marijuana Registered Caregiver (Home Occupation) – with cultivation not conducted on site - $150

** Medical Marijuana Caregiver Retail Store - $2,500

** Marijuana Testing Facility - $1,000

Tibbetts said that the license fees will be directed at substance use education and prevention, but specifics on that have yet to be determined by the council.

The first day that adult-use marijuana may be sold legally in Maine is Oct. 9. <

New town marijuana ordinance is in full swing as deadline for business applications has closed

Shaw Dwight is the owner of Paul's Boutique
in Windham and says he believes the town's
new marijuana ordinance will make it an
extremely competitive licensing process for
the adult use market in Windham.
PHOTO BY ED PIERCE

By Lorraine Glowczak

The approved town ordinance on the sale of Recreational Adult-Use and Medical Marijuana Storefront facilities as well as business and personal marijuana outdoor cultivation that was voted on, approved, and adopted by the Windham Town Council on May 26 officially took effect on Friday, June 26.

The deadline, however, for business applications occurred July 27 and will be forwarded in a month to the Windham Town Council for consideration. A special Windham Town Council meeting will be called on the first or second week of September to review and address the applications.

A four- to five-year process in the making, the Town of Windham has considered this new business and perhaps controversial model for a while. All the while, the town itself has seen retail marijuana storefronts increase to the present number of nine businesses. Some see this as economic development while others view this as a moral or youth-based use issue. Whatever the case may be, the Windham Town Council has diligently considered both perspectives in the past four years.

“Marijuana vendors began to build their businesses in 2016-2017,” said current Town Council Chair, Jarrod Maxfield. “Council members at that time – along with the Windham delegation, toured the facilities that were established. The vendors built their businesses immediately following the vote to approve medical marijuana at a time when there were no state regulations. The 2016-2017 Council chose not to ‘opt out’ of having marijuana business in Windham. As a result, it fell to the current 2020 Council to take a highly unregulated industry and put regulations on it.”

In the past couple of years, former and current Town Council meetings have had the sell of medical marijuana as a business on their agenda with public comment on both sides of the perspective.

After much consideration and public comment, the current Council considered as many angles on this issue as possible and finally reached the current ordinance which includes the following:

1)      One must be licensed to own a business.

2)      Two recreational, adult-use storefronts are allowed in the town.

3)      Four medical marijuana storefronts are allowed in the town.

4)      No marijuana plant can be grown outdoors. This includes both vendor and personal plant growth.

5)      For businesses, fees to apply for vendor license will be required. The fees are as follows:

Adult Use Marijuana Store - $2,500

Marijuana Cultivation Facility - $1,000

Marijuana Manufacturing Facility - $1,000

Medical Marijuana Registered Caregiver - Cultivation conducted on site - $300 Medical Marijuana Registered Caregiver (Home Occupation) - Cultivation not conducted on site - $150

Medical Marijuana Caregiver Retail Store - $2,500

Marijuana Testing Facility - $1,000

“The fees will go toward substance use education and prevention, but the parameters and specifics have yet to be determined,” said Windham Town Manager Barry Tibbetts. “The town council will discuss and consider these factors in the near future.”

Town Council Chair Maxfield said that the intention of the ordinance is to limit storefronts to a total of two adult-use and four medical storefronts.

“Currently, there are nine storefronts,” said Maxfield. “These storefronts are grandfathered in.  When a marijuana business decides to close, it will not be replaced. At this point – there will only be a total of six marijuana businesses in Windham – limited to two recreational adult use and four medical marijuana storefronts.”

Two business owners offered their thoughts on the new ordinance put in place.

“As a member of the appointment committee, I helped draft the Town of Windham Marijuana Business Licensing Ordinance,” said Shaw Dwight, the owner of Paul’s Boutique. “I recognize and am grateful for the time and commitment put forth by council members on this subject. Paul's Boutique has been doing business in Windham since 2016, and this ordinance could allow us to expand our offerings at our store on Route 302 into the adult use market. The Town's cap on adult use marijuana stores, however, will make this an extremely competitive licensing process. I agree that the Town should be able to know and control who operates in the Town but do feel there may be a tendency for municipalities to over-regulate cannabis.”

Charles Hawkins, owner of Maine Alternative Caring, shared his thoughts in terms of a Windham resident rather than a property owner.

“I have two major concerns as property owning resident of the town,” Hawkins said. “The impact of this ordinance on Windham residents in terms of personal outdoor marijuana growth is a huge injustice. Whether one is growing for recreational or medical use, an individual is halfway through this season’s harvest as this ordinance is implemented. That is a lot of money invested in plant growth. Not only that, the implementation of this ordinance is a burden on the taxpayer in terms of police and code enforcement. My second major concern is the limitation of marijuana business growth to Enterprise Drive in North Windham. I find that this may be a violation on property owners’ rights as well as possible income for vacant farmland owners. What about other property owners who have the land to offer cultivation, providing a rental income on their property? Why should this be limited to Enterprise Drive?”

Although it is true that both sides of the perspective may not be happy, Maxfield believes the Town Council did their best trying to meet all sides.

“Neither side, for or against, is happy with the ordinance outcome,” Maxfield said. “But for me, this is a positive thing. That indicates to me the Council found a middle of the road answer while regulating and putting some control on the expansion of the marijuana industry in our town while at the same time addressing the concerns of Windham residents who believe we have too many marijuana businesses in a such a small town.” 

For more details about the current ordinance, visit www.windhammaine.us/677/Marijuana-Business-License <