A brand new marijuana dispensary in Plainville has simply opened and is now proposing house supply

PLAINVILLE – Owners of a new recreational marijuana pharmacy in Plainville suggest shipping their products to at least six Massachusetts counties.

Apotho Therapeutics, open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., opened on February 8 at 119 Washington Street. The owners are the brothers Andrew Medeiros from Seekonk and Mathew Medeiros from Spencer.

In addition to serving as President of the Company, Mathew Medeiros is Co-CEO of Shine Delivery LLC, which plans to supply Apotho products to people over the age of 21 in Essex, Norfolk, Bristol, Suffolk, Middlesex and Plymouth counties Living in communities who live in communities allow retail marijuana delivery.

Andrew Medeiros runs the delivery service with Co-CEO and majority shareholder Andrew Stoddard.

Apotho Therapeutics sells its own flowers, concentrates, vaporizers, tinctures, themes and other items in the former Tavern From Tower Square, which closed in 2019 after 23 years of business.

Budtender Lenny Chroek serves a customer at Apotho Therapeutics in Plainville on February 23, 2021. The cannabis pharmacy proposes a delivery service.

During a recent community outreach meeting for the proposed marijuana delivery service, Mathew Medeiros said Shine is a pre-certified delivery company that has a license with the State Cannabis Control Commission to supply marijuana for “courier” retail and a license for requested the “marijuana delivery service”.

The courier license allows businesses to charge a fee when delivering products from their store to customers. With an operator license, they can also buy wholesale products from other cultivators and manufacturers and sell them to their customers.

These licenses are only available to certified economic support applicants and participants in the social equity program for at least the next three years.

More:Home delivery of marijuana is slated to begin in 2021

Shine, a social justice applicant, will pay 3% of its gross sales to the city annually, Medeiros said, prioritizing applicants from Plainville and areas disproportionately affected by the cityWar on Drugs as set by the CCC.

Deliveries would be in unmarked vans, Mathew Medeiros said.

There are more than 150 parishes in the six counties affected by the delivery service, although not all have approved the delivery of recreational cannabis. In addition to Plainville, Framingham and Marlborough are among the communities that allow such delivery.

There is an arrest warrant article in Natick for the spring town meeting that will allow residents to vote on acceptance of the two new types of delivery licenses created by the CCC, said James Freas, director of community and economic development for the town.

Franklin also doesn’t allow marijuana delivery, but city administrator Jamie Hellen said it could become a topic of conversation if a Franklin-operated marijuana facility were interested in offering that service.

Hellen said he wrote a letter to the CCC on Franklin’s behalf late last year, speaking out against the delivery proposal. He feared that he could affect the city in ways he hadn’t planned on, for example by affecting the city’s 3% local excise tax for marijuana sales made in the city.

He said there are three retail pharmacies waiting for permits to be approved by the CCC, but none have reached out to the city about delivering products.

Medway also spoke out against the CCC’s plans to allow delivery late last year, but the commission voted 3-1 on November 30 to approve it.

More:The Medway School Coalition urges the CCC to postpone the vote on the gap in home delivery of marijuana.

The potential for products getting into teenage hands is another concern, said Jennifer Knight-Levine, executive director of the SAFE Coalition, a nonprofit in western Norfolk County that includes Franklin, Medway and Millis.

“The SAFE coalition has seen three times the volume of calls for alcohol-related assistance since alcohol delivery services began,” she said. “We fear this is a similar trend that we will see as cannabis delivery is brought into our community. With teen drug use increasing and mental health on the rise, it will be important to ensure that everyone in our communities delivery service has funds for education and training provides prevention of adolescent cannabis use. “

During the community meeting last week, Medeiros said the delivery service was planning to operate discreetly with 24-hour security coverage of the premises and video surveillance. He said the operation would not be a nuisance to the community. Vehicles will also not hold cash or marijuana products overnight or outside of business hours, he said.

Freshly Baked Company, a veteran-owned marijuana delivery service in Taunton, is slated to be the first Massachusetts company to offer home delivery of marijuana when it begins later this month.

Lauren Young writes on politics, social issues and covers the cities of Bellingham, Franklin and Medway. Reach them at 774-804-1499 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @laurenwhy__.