Resinate threatens lawsuit if Grafton denies marijuana license under ‘First to the Finish Line’ policy

Grafton’s “First to the Finish Line” policy on retail marijuana is already receiving pushback, with Resinate issuing a threat to sue the town if it is denied one of the town’s two licences.

 “The HCA makes no mention of a condition that Reinate be the first or second dispensary to open,” wrote John J. Ferrier of Ferrier & Ferrier, the Holyoke attorneys representing Resinate, which received a Host Community Agreement from the town in May 2019.

The Select Board’s adoption of “First to the Finish Line” put in writing an unofficial policy which the town has operated under for the past two years. While four potential businesses have signed Host Community Agreements, Grafton has only two licenses to give away. Grafton’s bylaws, adopted by Town Meeting after cannabis sales were made legal in the state, allow the number of licenses permitted to be limited to 20 percent of the number of liquor licenses issued in the town.

The town now has four HCAs with potential retailers:

• Resinate, which would be located at 135 Westboro Road inside the building that hosts Pecorino;
• MJ’s Market, 13 Centennial Drive, a cultivator and retailer that recently applied for permits from the town building department;
• Discern’d Cannabis Purveyors, 130 and 134 Worcester St., appeared before the Planning Board last week with building plans;
• Nature’s Remedy, which would cultivate marijuana at 8 Millennium Drive.

Back in October 2019, Resinate’s Peter DeCaro, who also has businesses running in Northampton and Worcester, was optimistically planning to have his store up and running within six months. He did not, of course, realize the COVID-19 pandemic would complicate those plans.

To date, Resinate has paid more than $818,000 during the last year on construction and other project costs, working steadily since April 2020, Ferrier wrote in his letter to the town.

“The Town of Grafton is hereby put on notice that should the Select Board or any other town board or town official attempt to terminate Resinate’s HCA or otherwise interfere with Resinate’s lawfully permitted business, there will be consequences,” he wrote.

Ferrier also cited ad included a letter from then-Town Administrator Tim McInerney indicating that Resinate has a valid license with CCC and is a valid license holder in Grafton under the Host Community Agreement. “Therefore, should any town board or official try to interfere or stop Resinate’s business and investment to open an adult use dispensary, the town would be subject to lawsuits, injunctions, legal fees and other adverse consequences, as Resinate would have no choice to protest its significant investment.”

But while the town did not have the policy in writing, Town Counsel Ginny Kramer advised officials in November 2019 that the town can turn away cannabis businesses once two businesses passed the final stage.

“Unless and until the by law is amended, a maximum of two RMEs may be sited in Grafton,” Kramer wrote. “Although the law allows municipalities to enact such limitations, it gives no guidance on when during the application process a municipality should or must enforce local limits. Although we have sought guidance from the Cannabis Control Commission… they have declined to opine on this issue.”

Kramer said her opinion is that once the CCC has determined an application is complete, if the town already has two marijuana licenses procured, the town can then inform the CCC that a third will not be allowed.

A Town Meeting warrant article requesting that the town expand its marijuana licenses to three was defeated last spring.

Like Grafton Common? Help support local journalism with a donation.