BOSTON (AP) — The first recreational marijuana shop opened Monday in Boston, where owners are bracing for large crowds.
Pure Oasis owners Kobie Evans and Kevin Hart say they’re preparing for up to 1,000 customers a day in the initial days to visit the store, which is also the first pot shop owned and operated by black entrepreneurs.
Evans and Hart say their shop marks a significant step forward for the East Coast’s pot industry.
“It’s bittersweet. It’s a great feeling to be first, but we know that also comes with a level of responsibility,” Hart told The Associated Press last month after state regulators awarded the shop a final license. “It’s our responsibility to take this win we got today and make sure people of color realize they have the same opportunities.”
The shop, located about 4 miles south of downtown in the city’s diverse Dorchester neighborhood, has a large waiting area and 10 registers and planned to have about 30 staffers on hand when doors opened at 11 a.m.
Mayor Marty Walsh says police would make sure the opening is safe and orderly, with officers helping with crowd and traffic control and discouraging public consumption of marijuana, which remains illegal in Massachusetts.
“It’s going to be crazy,” he warned at a press conference Friday. “There’s going to be lines, there’s going to be traffic, there’s going to be chaos, there’s going to be confusion.”
Pure Oasis joins roughly 40 retail marijuana locations already open in Massachusetts, though it is the only one that is run by black entrepreneurs nearly four years after state voters passed the nation’s first marijuana law aimed at encouraging people of color and others harmed by the war on drugs to participate in the new industry.
The 3,000-square-foot shop, which will close daily at 7 p.m., sits on a bustling street that cuts through some of the state’s most diverse communities.
Customers must be 21 years or age or older to enter and will be subject to certain purchase limits, at least for the initial days of operations.
Walsh, who has faced criticism for Boston’s particularly slow rollout of pot shops, has said the pace of store openings in the city will begin to pick up.
At least three more marijuana stores are expected to open soon, and Walsh's administration has reached agreements with about a dozen others seeking to operate in the city.
Most East Coast states, except Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, have only approved cannabis for medical use.
