{"id":16699,"date":"2019-09-26T16:50:44","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T20:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=16699"},"modified":"2019-10-01T16:57:55","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T20:57:55","slug":"gateway-crop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/gateway-crop\/","title":{"rendered":"Gateway Crop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; width: 100%; height: 450px;\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23fefefe&amp;d=oct19_flipbook&amp;hideIssuuLogo=true&amp;pageNumber=34&amp;showOtherPublicationsAsSuggestions=true&amp;u=portlandmagazine\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Counting down to legalization:\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">This holiday season,<br \/>\n<b>there\u2019s a new business in town<\/b>.<\/span><\/h1>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">By Rebecca Garibaldi<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16731 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/oct19-cannabiz-300x261.jpg\" alt=\"d07e8851-3a89-4b3a-b141-2d2a3e596ded\" width=\"300\" height=\"261\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/oct19-cannabiz-300x261.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/oct19-cannabiz-768x669.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/oct19-cannabiz-1024x891.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/oct19-cannabiz-200x174.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/oct19-cannabiz-402x350.jpg 402w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I<\/span><span class=\"s1\">t\u2019s time we met the music men.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cPeople come to Portland because it\u2019s the city of \u2018best ofs\u2019\u2014the best food, the best beer, and now you have the best cannabis,\u201d says Thomas Mourmouras, director of operations at <strong>Fire on Fore<\/strong> on 367 Fore Street, Portland, and <strong>Beach Boys<\/strong> on 818 Maine Street, South Portland. \u201cCannabis and service are the two biggest industries in Portland keeping the younger population in town, helping lead to a huge economic drive and improving the community,\u201d says Mourmouras, 27. \u201cJust look at our employees. Eighteen of our 20 employees are under the age of 35.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The medical cannabis dispensary offers products treating acute and chronic illnesses, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. \u201cWe lean toward retail,\u201d Mourmouras says. \u201cThe people of Portland view us as a high-end boutique. We can\u2019t diagnose problems. We\u2019re not doctors, and we can\u2019t give people medical recommendations. What we can do is inform them on the different types of relief our cannabis products offer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cFor me, [marijuana\u2019s] the same as alcohol and tobacco use,\u201d says Jessica Ben, a South Portland resident and mother. \u201cI think the economic benefit of recreational legalization would be huge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cW<\/span><span class=\"s1\">e\u2019re trying to stay away from being compared to tobacco use,\u201d says Mourmouras. \u201cIf there\u2019s any comparison to alcohol, recreational use [is closest to] the craft beer industry. Our product is an alternative to liquor and tobacco. We\u2019re seeing a big <strong>CBD<\/strong> [cannabidiol] \u2018oil boom\u2019 right now. Ideally, once the bill passes, we will sell recreationally. We expect the majority of our sales will be <strong>THC<\/strong> [tetrahydrocannabinol]-related then.\u201d CBD products contain less than 0.3 THC levels making them more of a relaxant, as opposed to THC products, which result in more of a high.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cOur biggest concern about the new bill is the 250-foot buffer [between marijuana retail stores]. There are multiple stores surrounding us looking for a license. This will make the process much more competitive,\u201d Mourmouras says. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Directly across from Fire on Fore, <strong>Awear Smokeshop<\/strong> at 370 Fore Street also has plans to sell recreationally. Store employee Ellie Crawford says, \u201cWe\u2019re not sure what\u2019s going to happen if the buffer comes into play. We\u2019ll take it as it goes, but the owner of our store is in tight communication with the owners at Fire on Fore.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Meanwhile, Mourmouras says, \u201cI\u2019m not sure what their intention is. If they do decide to go into the recreational market it\u2019s going to be very interesting. I don\u2019t communicate with the store owner personally, so I can\u2019t say what their plan is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Tucked away in the town of Scarborough at 137 Pleasant Hill Road sits <strong>Mainely Medical.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">In its first two years, this <strong>caregiver cultivation facility<\/strong> and struggling start-up has only tapped into 10 percent of their potential market space. <\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u201cSales at our location have already doubled on a month by month basis,\u201d says Tito Sands, CEO and store owner. \u201cOnce we\u2019re able to use 100 percent of our market space, our plant cultivation will increase from 30 plants to around 5,000. This could boost our sales growth as well as employee growth from 7 workers to 20.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Dispensaries aren\u2019t the only benefactors of cannabis legalization. \u201cThe property owners who are cannabis-friendly and have facilities zoned properly are the big winners of this whole transition,\u201d Sands says. \u201cThe landlords who aren\u2019t willing to work with the cannabis business\u2014mind you, we\u2019re just like anyone else\u2014are missing out on a big opportunity, as this movement is only beginning to get its feet as a true industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">As of now, the town of Scarborough has halted any new storefronts from opening. \u201cMaine is dependent on local control,\u201d Sands says. \u201cMunicipalities that opt-out of any of the license classes [for recreational marijuana sales and cultivation] are short-sighted to the opportunities that are coming. The property owners in those municipalities are then some of the biggest losers in the situation. As for us, we do have a great lease, but it\u2019s tailored to our business purpose. Nothing in cannabis is normal.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Not Everyone\u2019s 100% On Board Yet<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThere are currently no legally operating marijuana <em>retail<\/em> stores in the Town of Scarborough. At the August 29 Ordinance Committee meeting, the Committee directed staff to bring back draft ordinance language that allows for cultivation, manufacture, and testing of both medical and adult-use marijuana. The draft language does not allow for adult-use or medical marijuana retail stores.&#8221;\u2014<b>Larissa Crockett<\/b>,<br \/>\nScarborough Assistant Town Manager.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><b>Ganja Candy Factory<\/b> on Riverside Street in Portland is contemplating <b>staying medical<\/b>. \u201cWe worry about giving our current customer base the attention they deserve\u2014we don\u2019t want a line out the door of people who just want to get high. We\u2019re content. More is always better\u2014to an extent.\u201d\u2014Co-Owner <b>Angela Warren<\/b> with Jeremy Remians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retailers gear up for the March 2020 legalization.<br \/>\nBy Rebecca Garibaldi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[464,468,459,462,461,470,458,467,127,465,460,469,126,466,385,463],"class_list":["post-16699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-awear-smokeshop","tag-beach-boys","tag-cannabis","tag-cbd","tag-fire-on-fore","tag-ganja-candy-factory","tag-gateway-crop","tag-legalization","tag-maine","tag-mainely-medical","tag-marijuana","tag-medical-cannabis","tag-portland","tag-scarborough","tag-seaweed","tag-thc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16699"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16796,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16699\/revisions\/16796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}