The R.I. Department of Business Regulation announced that they will be selecting which company will receive the state’s last medical marijuana license. The only remaining region that has not been issued a dispensary license is Zone 6, which spans from Pawtucket to Newport. According to the announcement the only company that is qualified or eligible to receive the license is Mother Earth Wellness in Pawtucket. More information is scheduled to be released on April 26th.
The license for Zone 6 was held up for some time as businesses who were disqualified from the state lottery appealed their disqualifications. Other businesses were stonewalled by local officials who have denied the necessary approvals to obtain maintain state licensure. One business, Rhode Island Care Concepts, that proposed locating their dispensary on Circle Street in East Providence, was told they couldn’t operate based on the Zoning Board of Review’s belief that the business would “alter the general character of the surrounding area.”
Joe Pakuris owns Mother Earth Wellness. He plans to put the dispensary inside the same building as his store, Kitchen and Countertop of New England. This will be the sixth and final new dispensary license as a result of the 2019 legislation that helped to expand access to medical marijuana.
Find the full story from WPRI 12 News here: https://www.wpri.com/target-12/medical-marijuana-dispensary-likely-coming-to-pawtucket/
