Boston Area's First Retail Marijuana Shop Opens Without Trouble

BROOKLINE, MA — Despite concern that the corner of Washington Street and Route 9 would be mangled with traffic for the opening weekend of Greater Boston's first retail marijuana shop, the intersection flowed freely. The line Saturday at New England Treatment Access (NETA) didn't make it out of the parking lot, which was big enough to contain about 800 people but didn't seem to go above 150.

"Things have gone smoothly so far," said Brookline Police Chief Andrew Lipson.

"We've had no issues," added Lt. Phil Harrington, a spokesperson for the department.

According to a NETA spokesperson, some 2,500 people made purchases on Saturday and about that same number made purchases on Sunday as well.

"We could not have really asked for a smoother launch. Everything went almost exactly as planned. I think traffic on Rt 9 moved along just as it would on any other Saturday. People really heeded our advice and took advantage of public transportation and the reserve ahead app," said Amanda Rositano, director of operational compliance at NETA.

Once the doors opened at Saturday 9 a.m., the line moved rather quickly with most people waiting between 30 minutes to an hour to get in and make a purchase. For the 70 percent of folks who reserved ahead, the wait was more like 10 to 20 minutes, according to Rositano.

What happened?

In the lead-up to the opening, officials planned for severe traffic and asked visitors to plan ahead and take public transportation. The MBTA's D-Line, which is undergoing track and signal updates, meant many people walked or biked. The New England Cannabis Convention was held at Hynes Convention Center at about the same time, so many people may have gone to that. And NETA advertised a fast-lane option, where folks could go online and order ahead of time and get routed through a shorter queue.

At its Northampton opening last fall, Rositano said 17 percent of customers on day one utilized the reserve ahead app, and people waited in line in Northampton for several hours. In Brookline closer to 70 percent of first day customers used the app and the line never went onto the sidewalk.

"Not once," said Rositano. "There was a lot of concern about how to cut it off at White Place,but we never even needed to. We'll continue to use this model throughout the week, and re-acess this weekend about when to reopen the parking lot."

Rositano said they may have run out of a strain or two from their inventory, but they didn't run out of anything major. And, she said, feedback from medical patients that use the dispensary indicated things went smoothly for them, too.

Select Board Chairman Neil Wishinsky told reporters the town was excited about possible financial benefits of having recreational marijuana in town.

"Hopefully this will mean additional tax revenue and hopefully it will help business for surrounding merchants," he said.

The state requires a 6.25 percent sales tax and 10.75 percent excise tax, while Brookline's Town Meeting voted to enforce local taxes up to 3 percent — the state limit, according to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

As the town edges closer to building a new elementary school and renovating two others to the tune of about $2 million, the possible tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales looks set to help.

Three other recreational marijuana shops have applied for licenses in town, including one in Coolidge Corner where the Pier One Imports used to sit.

RELATED: Retail Marijuana Comes To Brookline: What Opening Day Looked Like

Patch Reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).