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First Retail Pot Stores Approved In Massachusetts

Marijuana is dispensed from a jar

Massachusetts marijuana regulators Thursday approved final licenses for the first two retail pot shops in the state, but opening dates remain uncertain.

There are still regulatory steps and final inspections that need to take place before the newly licensed stores – one in Northampton and one in Leicester, just west of Worcester – can start selling to the public.

Retail marijuana sales have been legal in Massachusetts since July 1st, but no stores have opened.

Springfield City Councilor Justin Hurst, who chairs the council’s committee on marijuana regulations, said the city will begin accepting applications on Oct 16th for permits for pot stores.

"Government can work slowly, and government can work quickly. So we'll see," said Hurst when asked this week when the first marijuana retail location in Springfield might open.

             The  City Council voted to cap  at 15 the number  of stores in the city that will be permitted to sell marijuana.

Most  of Springfield’s suburbs have banned pot businesses.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.