John Hilliard reports in the Boston Globe that Garden Remedies, Newton’s only recreational marijuana store, is seeking for the city to drop it’s “by appointment only” rule.
“As far as we know, Newton is really the only location that has a stringent kind of appointment rule,” owner Jeff Herold said. “And we definitely feel like it hurts our overall business.”
Marijuana stores are not required to operate by appointment only under the city’s ordinance, but the City Council has included the restriction in the three special permits for retailers it has approved so far.
Despite all the early fears, Garden Remedies has functioned smoothly and without incident since it opened according to the Newton Police.
It seems to me that it may be time to drop this rather onerous restriction that the city doesn’t apply to any other retail establishments in Newton.
Whats the origin of the “appointment only” rule? If it was part of the agreement the City made in order to operate then they can “ask” but don’t expect.
Do residents get to change agreed rules when things don’t go our way? Its kinda like Riverside development asking for yet another special permit change because of market conditions. The city is not here to backstop losses to private business owners
The “by appointment only” rule was dreamed up by City Council prohibitionists as one of many obstacles they use to thwart full implementation of cannabis reforms passed by voters. It serves no useful purpose other than to make things more difficult for cannabis businesses and their customers.
Just like those in congress who refused to accept the outcome of a recent election, some members of the City Council have refused to accept the results of FOUR ballot initiatives that reformed medical and recreational marijuana laws. Their obstinance obstruction, and complete disregard for the democratic process, has cost the city of Newton millions in lost revenue and hundreds of COVID-proof jobs during very tough economic times.
Some people with better memories please correct me. I seem to remember Garden Remedies was set ‘by appointment only’ because of concerns over lack of sufficient store parking and the like. I think those terms were in GR’s original medical license, and therefore were extended to the recreational license.
Off-hand, I think that there was a push by prohibitionists to force all pot shops in Newton to be by appointment only, based on the concern that these shops would be overwhelmed with customers. I don’t know the extent to which that push was successful.
I’d expect Garden Remedies to make the case that public parking on Washington Street is now consistently under-utilized. If true, that would mean the original reason cited for keeping the store appointment-only is no longer a factor.
@Dulles – in addition to more open parking on Washington Street, the store opened a lot around the corner, so parking shouldn’t even be an issue.
Remember that Garden Remedies was an early entrant in the Cannabis trade? At the time NETA was the only local shop and the traffic caused by lines at Rt 9 alarmed everyone. The appointment-only rule was meant to prevent lines up and down Washington st.. I believe there was a clause in the permit to come back later if desired.
Agree with Susan. Now that multiple shops are opening in Newton, I think this isn’t needed. I would propose dropping the appointment requirements once 3 shops are open in Newton. Let them compete for customers like any business, and have access like any business (subject to requiring ID for purchase just like a liquor store).
I think they’ve had no problems since they’ve opened, and they did a good job on that parking lot. You always see security as well, and the intersection has been fine too.
With so many new shops coming online, the lines are unlikely to come to just one place. And a much larger shop is opening down Washington Street…
Facts matter!
Fact: Not one single City Councilor publicly defended the voters 2016 decision to legalize recreational cannabis.
Fact: Not even one new cannabis dispensary has opened in Newton since the 2016 vote.
Fact: The city of Newton has lost millions of dollars in revenue because the City Council was not prepared to implement the voter approved law in a timely fashion.
Fact: During the toughest economic era of our lifetimes, The City Council’s delay in implementing the cannabis law cost Newton hundreds of jobs that would have been unaffected by COVID [because they were categorized by the state as essential workers].
Fact: Rather than defend the majority of Newton voters who voted to legalize recreational cannabis, Councilor Albright sponsored a failed ballot measure that would have cut in half the number of cannabis licenses issued by the City.
Why does all this matter in 2021? Because the 2016 law to “regulate cannabis like alcohol” not only approved cannabis shops, it also approved cannabis CAFES. City government needs to be prepared to implement that portion of the law as soon as they receive updated guidance from the state, without allowing any more obstructionist behavior from prohibitionists.
The restaurant industry in Newton desperately needs help. Existing restaurants should be given top priority for cafe licenses that would allow them to include cannabis products on their menu along with alcoholic beverages. It would be a damn shame for this help to be delayed because the City Council was not prepared to implement the other half of the law passed by voters in 2016.
I happened to walk by this shop frequently and I know there is a semblance of security but invariably the people that go into the shop go back to their cars and start smoking… My friends in the neighborhood that live there also complain about the stench of pot and they are embarrassed to walk their young kids by
So in as much as this pot corporation wants to make even more money -and certainly they’ve pushed out the long term remaining tenants in that building for that purpose- The big question is would you want your child to be hit by someone smoking weed and driving around Newton? Boston area drivers are bad enough but pot smoking drivers cause more accidents- remember the pot smokers’ Natick traffic victim?
Ask yourself do you really want the blood of your neighbors or your own family just because of this increase in Greed?
Agree- let’s close all the liquor stores too!
Drivers under the influence of alcohol are much more likely to cause accidents.
Robert Manning, thanks for bringing up the reasons why Newton needs to hurry up and get another pot shop in Newton open already. Garden Remedies should not be allowed to continue to have an effective citywide monopoly, concentrating purchases in one place.
Optometric Associates in the Garden Remedies building was/is our family optometrist (the pandemic has put us off our regular checkups). So I’ve been in the neighborhood and in the building plenty of times in recent years. Perhaps I was in need of new glasses, as I haven’t seen evidence to back your claims. Maybe it’s easier to keep an eye on Washington Street from Natick.
The child driver in Natick who struck two pedestrians earlier this year while intoxicated is horrible and tragic. Whoever gave the child driver pot needs to be held accountable and prosecuted. If the pot was sourced from a dispensary, then there is a trail of evidence — packaging, a receipt to an adult, a transaction record at the dispensary — that will help prosecutors make their case. Part of the point of dispensaries is to greatly reduce black-market weed and its unscrupulous dealers, who’ll sell to anyone.
Robert,
If any employees or security observe anyone in their parking lot smoking weed, i would assume they would be liable if they DONT report to the police.
Similar to a bar tender observing a drunk getting in their car to drive?
I’m not familiar with weed+driving laws in MA
@Robert Manning, I live in the neighborhood and walk by Garden Remedies on a daily basis. I’ve had ample opportunity to observe the activities around Garden Remedies,, and have yet to see anybody consuming the product on or around the premises. Seems to me that the customers lean toward 40 plus in age. There’s never much of a line to get in (0 to 3 people most of the time). People walk out of the store with their little bags one person at a time. They seem happy.
I’ve never seen any riff-raff outside of GR. It seems that their clientele skews older and people mind their own business. It also looks cleaner and nicer in appearance, especially with their new signage, than a lot of other businesses on Washington Street.
Hey, Robert Manning could be right. My uncle’s roommate’s barber’s girlfriend told me that pot smokers worship the devil and drink baby’s blood.
Let’s get real! This is why I’m pissed… The Newton City Council has cost taxpayers a fortune by bungling implementation of a law voters passed more than four years ago.
On February 22nd The Patch reported that [if approved] the city would earn $250K per year from the community host agreement with Nuestra, a cannabis shop [in a former pet store] located in Upper Falls…
In addition to that $250K per year, the city would also earn its portion of the exorbitant sales tax that gets tacked onto all recreational marijuana sales in Massachusetts. And on top of the revenue, this modest size shop hopes to hire at least 15 full time employees…
Now do the math. Nuestra represents one of seven shops in Newton that have not been allowed to open yet. Between Community Host Agreements and tax revenue, that’s more than $2M the City Council lost in 2020 alone…
Since the 2016 ballot initiative, the Council’s protracted approval process for cannabis licenses has cost taxpayers between $5M-$6M. Worse still, when you add part time jobs and off-site staff to full time employees of those cannabis shops, the City Council has quite literally cost hundreds of people their jobs, at a time when people desperately need a paycheck.