Milford's Sira Naturals Gets First Recreational Marijuana License

MILFORD, MA—Milford-based Sira Naturals has been named the first business in Massachusetts to be awarded a license to grow adult-use cannabis in the state, according to multiple reports.

The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission met with Sira Naturals on Thursday in a public hearing to address an application for its cultivation facility in Milford. The company grows medical marijuana at the facility already that it sends to dispensaries in Cambridge, Needham and Somerville, and will now be able to cultivate product for recreational facilities.

The commission gave the nod this afternoon with a unanimous decision, granting a provisional license that is subject to conditions, including mandatory inspections, reports the Boston Globe.

In a contentious ballot measure earlier this year, Milford voters supported banning recreational marijuana businesses from town, but with a caveat: existing businesses could continue. Of the 2,629 casting a vote in a special election, 73 percent backed that ballot measure.

First, Milford joined (even if only slightly) others across the country by approving marijuana establishments during the state ballot question in the presidential election of 2016. In September last year, Milford voters, by a little more than half, approved a bylaw to prohibit recreational marijuana establishments in the town. Then in October, at Town Meeting, voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to allow those businesses that were established before July 2017 to continue.

ProVerde is the other of the two Milford marijuana-growing businesses that exist in town.

The Cannabis Control Commission received 51 applications from cannabis businesses across Massachusetts. Fifteen of those are from potential retailers.

On May 22, the Cannabis Control Commission ended its priority review process and approved 205 prospective licensees to enter the agency's application system early and have their license applications processed first. The 205 total certified includes 82 Registered Marijuana Dispensaries (RMDs) and 123 Economic Empowerment Applicants, which were "required to demonstrate residency, experience or business practices that promote economic empowerment in communities disproportionately impacted by marijuana enforcement."

With an official July 1 opening day start for retail adult-use marijuana businesses technically allowed to open by voter approved state law, as WBUR reports, that opening day will be "far from robust." Since no commercial businesses licenses have been granted, it is unclear how many, if any, will actually be open for business on July 1.

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