3 out of 4 Americans support legalizing marijuana, but almost half don't want dispensaries in their neighborhoods, a Pew Research study finds.
Residents are concerned there will be "people in tie-dyed shirts walking out the front door," said one dispensary executive. “This is a medical facility, we have medical professionals on staff.”
Ryan Smith, chief operating officer of cannabis dispensary Cure Holdings, worked closely with a town in Massachusetts to try to come up with an agreement to open a dispensary but in the end couldn’t negotiate the terms. Aside from Massachusetts, he has also experienced resistance in other communities.
The same situation is playing out in Columbus, Ohio. Luis M. Alcalde, an Ohio-based cannabis lawyer, has had difficulty helping his clients open stores in the suburbs of Columbus, forcing all of the five dispensaries that were approved to open in one general spot in the city. “He would not lease to my client because he’s old school and he’s very biased against cannabis,” said Alcalde. “And here we were offering to build a really nice retail establishment that was going to generate a lot of foot traffic, but he wouldn’t budge.”Smith explained that part of the reason wealthier communities don’t want dispensaries in their neighborhood is because they fear a cannabis dispensary will lead to crime or draw unsavory characters to the area.
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