What To Do About Pot Shops In Brookline? Residents Push Back

BROOKLINE, MA — As a second marijuana business is set to move into the space where Pier 1 was situated in Coolidge Corner, there's a growing movement among some residents who are upset and concerned about what it could mean for the neighborhood. This weekend a number of them brought signs that read things like "appointment only" to the shop in Coolidge Corner in an effort to show their discontent.

Sanctuary Medicinals received license approval and finalized a Community Host Agreement from the Select Board in August but it is waiting on a final approval from the state’s Cannabis Control Commission. About six months ago, New England Treatment Access, or NETA, started selling recreational use marijuana at its shop near the corner of Route 9 and Washington Street.

It opened without much interruption to traffic, or crime, as some had worried, but slowly over the course of the next few months, residents said they began to feel repercussions. They noticed streets filled with cars from customers come to park and walk over to the shop. Residents complain that drivers regularly block driveways, the people in them, bring litter and talk loudly, urinate in public and smoke pot near people's homes.

Now, a group calling itself Concerned Citizens of Coolidge Corner has put up an online petition asking the town to do something. Residents are asking the town for stronger controls such as appointment-only sales. Many say they want the town to regulate marijuana as tightly as it does liquor.

The town is projected to collect more than $1 million this year in taxes from NETA’s marijuana sales. So far the money the town has made been held up waiting for Town Meeting to decide what to do with it during budget season.

Brookline has a buffer zone preventing establishments from opening too close to schools, but that’s not enough to reduce the risk to children, Boston Children’s Hospital’s Dr. Lydia Shrier, told the Select Board in September.

Brookline mother of two Jenn Burton of Coolidge Corner said she wasn't opposed to recreational marijuana but was concerned about the host agreement for the retail shop that was set to come to the neighborhood.

"I'm concerned about the host agreement, how lax it is," she told the select board recently.

Although the host agreement has been conditionally approved and mentions litter, public urination and public consumption, she wanted it to go further and ban the sell of vape pens and edibles.

Residents are pointing to Newton as an example of a community with cannabis establishments that control the number of people coming and going there by requiring appointment only shops.

Nearly 900 people have signed an online petition to keep Sanctuary from opening at 1351 Beacon St. and ban the sale of edibles and vape pens in town. Brookline resident Susan Park, who is behind the petition said another 200 or so have signed a paper version of the petition.

The Concerned Citizens of Coolidge Corner are not protesting the legalization of marijuana or the right for a dispensary to exist in Brookline; however, given Coolidge Corner's proximity to numerous schools and in light of this new research, we request that the Town revoke the Dispensary's license to operate in this location and weigh in on the rest of us outside the 300 ft. of the shop who were not invited to the public hearings.

"The town is taking very seriously the concerns that people have in communities where there are or will be cannabis establishments," Select Board Chair Bernard Greene said in the September meeting.

The Select Board, can update licensing process, he said. But he reminded residents that some 60 percent of Brookline voters elected to bring recreational cannabis, when it was on the state ballot.

"No where on the ballot did it say 'except in my neighborhood,'" he said. "The fact is, we have these establishments in town. The role of the board is to ensure that the problems that accompany almost any business opening in town. We have no silver bullet, but this board is listening and addressing issues that can be addressed."

Kerri Ann Tester lives around the corner from NETA noticed a few changes in her Brookline Village neighborhood and wants the rest of Brookline, and her elected officials to know. In September, she was among those who told the board she's seen more litter, vandalism, public urination and public marijuana use.

“It’s not like any one thing that’s really impacting our lives,” she said. “It’s death by a thousand cuts. It was OK, it was great, then it was kind of irritating, and now ... I’m really angry and a lot of my neighbors are really angry.”

Watch her explain what she's seen here:

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).