Massachusetts’s First Dispensary Opening This Month

Massachusetts’s governor has issued a temporary waiver to help the state’s first marijuana dispensary begin selling medical marijuana.

Under Massachusetts medical marijuana law, dispensaries must have their marijuana tested for cannabinoids, solvents, mycotoxins and other microbiological contaminants along with heavy metals and pesticides. But testing labs in Massachusetts are unable to test for 7 of the 18 mandated pesticides. Under current state regulations, that would have made the marijuana unable to be sold by Massachusetts dispensaries.

The temporary waiver will allow the state’s first dispensary, Alternative Therapy Group, to sell marijuana for medical use with a label that discloses to the consumer the chemicals that were not tested.

“Patients have waited to access marijuana for medical purposes for far too long,” stated Govornor Baker. “This waiver will allow industry laboratories a little more time to reach full operation while providing safe amounts of medical marijuana for qualifying patients who need it.”

Alternative Therapy Group dispensary expects to open before July and will be by appointment only.

Under the three-month waiver, the dispensary may only dispense a maximum of 4.23 ounces of marijuana to any qualifying patient for their 60-day supply, and must provide patients with instructions to consume no more than 2 grams per day.