Northampton, Massachusetts, a small town, has a high concentration of dispensaries, prompting some officials to call for a halt in their growth

How many cannabis dispensaries are considered to be too much? This past week, a Northampton, Massachusetts, city council subcommittee recommended that the cap on weed companies be anywhere north of 12 for this wealthy college town with a population of 29,311.

The entire city council might consider the subcommittee's 3-1 recommendation as soon as its January 19 meeting.

The council barely rejected a proposed rule to regulate the number of clinics at 10 in 2018, going 5-4, drawing the battle lines in this little cannabis war. The proliferation of already-existing dispensaries had alarmed opponents, who feared that they would become an insurmountable force. The locals, on the other hand, watched as store after store rose up in awe (and some with concern). People questioned how many this little city should be able to support.

The city's website now lists 14 cannabis retail locations with legal agreements. But that big number can be their downfall. Local authorities claimed that The Source in Northampton, Massachusetts, was the first dispensary to close in the state since recreational marijuana usage became legal there in 2016.

At a council meeting in December, a fresh cap request was made. Just a few weeks before, another dispensary proposal for nearby Florence, a village that is a part of Northampton, had been killed off by Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, who genuinely opposes any cap. The mayor stated that although she disagreed with the dispensary's intended Main Street location in that town, she was still opposed to "artificially restricting" cannabis businesses given how easily available recreational marijuana is in close-by states like Connecticut and Vermont. Sciarra, on the other hand, expressed concern over giant cannabis corporations supplanting locally owned small businesses.

Karen Foster, a councilor, is vehemently opposed to Northampton accepting an infinite number of dispensaries. Foster told Western Mass News, "The more dispensaries there are, the more we're normalizing use in our community, the more subliminal advertising there is." "With my kids, I pass four or five dispensaries every day."

The council is divided. Jim Nash, council president, said of the cannabis industry in general, "It's been incredibly beneficial for us." In terms of influence, I compare it to law firms and dentists. Nash sponsored the 2018 cap plan, though he now admits it wasn't a well-liked notion.The fact that any cap would exclude the "social equity candidates" that the state's Cannabis Control Commission protects complicates the situation. These may be people who run businesses of color or live in communities that have been severely affected by the war on drugs. At least one municipal authority has questioned whether candidates for social equity would later sell their companies to a sizable, external company.

Another issue is whether a restriction on dispensaries could pave the path for the sale of tainted, potent marijuana on the underground market.

Regardless of opinions, there is no denying that the aggregate number of dispensaries is rising. 264 merchants are already operating in the Bay State, according to Shawn Collins, executive director of the Massachusetts Cannabis Commission, with 150 additional "provisional" licenses in the pipeline and nine retailers finishing up their licensing applications.

He stressed that the local authority outlined in Massachusetts' cannabis regulations is crucial in this situation (with recreational sales starting in 2018). Following a municipal referendum in that direction, communities may even outright prohibit dispensaries.

While Massachusetts' neighbor, New Hampshire, does not, Collins noted that other states do. A state lottery is one choice in this case. Naturally, this puts prospective dispensary owners up against one another.

A state may also rule that the total number of cannabis stores in any one area may not exceed, say, 20% of the local liquor shop quota. In that case, a community that currently permits 20 package stores would only permit 5 dispensaries.