Dartmouth may get a medical marijuana dispensary

Sep 20, 2016

Jane Heatley — president of William Noyes Webster Foundation — has recently signed a 25-year lease at 508 Faunce Corner Road, with the intention of opening a 10,000 square-foot medical marijuana dispensary there by late spring.

The Select Board signed a host agreement at a meeting on September 20, meaning that — subject to Heatley getting all the required state permits — Dartmouth welcomes her organization to town.

Dartmouth is the regional center for medical care on the South Coast, said Town Administrator David Cressman via telephone. “It’s a positive venture.”

Alongside the convenience factor for patients seeking to fill a prescription, Cressman said there are financial benefits for the town with the proposed agreement.

In exchange for hosting the nonprofit, the WNW Foundation will pay the town $100,000 its first year of operation, $50,000 in its second year, and $200,000 in its third year and each year thereafter, said Cressman.

The foundation also must make an annual $10,000 charitable donation to a local nonprofit that provides goods and services to Dartmouth residents, said Cressman. The foundation will also pay property taxes, and the town will receive a cut of the WNW Foundation’s gross sales (1.5 percent its first year of operation; 2 percent in its second year; 2.5 in its third year and every year thereafter).

“I think the deal that we struck was a responsible deal,” said Cressman. “We tried to strike a deal looking at this as a regional facility,” he added.

The next step for Heatley’s organization is to present a design to the Planning Board.

“Dartmouth has told us where they want us to go and what they want it to look like,” said Heatley. She said she will be presenting plans within a month.

The addition to Dartmouth will be just one of the foundation’s four possible locations. Heatley currently operates a 30,000 square-foot grow in Plymouth, and will be opening a dispensary in Dennis in February 2017.

Additionally, she is currently negotiating to open a dispensary in Cambridge, following a process similar to that of the Town of Dartmouth. She said the state only allows companies to open a maximum of three dispensaries at the current time.

"It's a new industry," said Heatley. "We're not open yet. We're about to open."

Heatley was inspired to join the growing cannabis industry after tending to her sick mother in California. Heatley said she would cook banana bread using medical marijuana oil, and consequently cut her mother’s pain medications in half.

“She wouldn’t need the opiates,” said Heatley.

Heatley said she wanted to make a difference, and after seeing firsthand the effects of cannabis, decided that she wanted to be involved in the budding Massachusetts industry. She ditched her former real estate career, and started the William Noyes Webster Foundation — named for her maternal grandfather — in 2012. Voters legalized medical marijuana in Massachusetts in 2012.

“The cannabis… there’s a need for it,” said Heatley. “Our mission is to help veterans.”

Heatley said she then began the nearly five year process with the state Department of Public Health, and in January 2014, was awarded one of 20 dispensary licenses awarded under Governor Deval Patrick.

It was after the Commonwealth came out with regulations for dispensaries that Dartmouth officials went out and zoned for where dispensaries could be located, said Cressman. He said that more companies can approach the town — there is no legally set limit — but he doubts that will happen.

“There’s only so much of a market for medical marijuana,” said Cressman. If another dispensary were to open shop in town, however, Cressman said the yearly fee for hosting them would be divided by the amount of dispensaries. For example, if two additional dispensaries were to pop up in town, the $100,000 fee that WNW is set to pay its first year would be split between the three organizations.

After Governor Charlie Baker was inducted in 2015, marijuana legislation was overhauled, allowing Heatley to apply for two more dispensaries.

“It’s complicated. Two different governors. Two different systems, and it’s changing every day,” she said. “That’s been kind of exciting.”

Heatley said the nonprofit is still expanding. Right now, it is limited to a four-person board of directors, but she hopes to add a minimum of 40 employees to the Dartmouth facility. The organization will be supplying to both Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, as well as the Dartmouth region, said Heatley.

For more information, visit the WNW Foundation at www.wnwfoundation.org or on Facebook, facebook.com/42wnwf.

Heatley’s September 20 meeting with the Select Board was a follow up to a July 25 meeting, in which Heatley appeared to get the go-ahead even though her plans to rent space at another Faunce Corner Road location had fallen through. The Select Board also welcomed the business opportunity at that meeting.