Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jul 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52

MILK STREET MEDICAL MARIJUANA FACILITY DESERVES CITY APPROVAL

THE BUSINESS Improvement District in Downtown Crossing has done 
amazing work to revitalize the area, but the group's campaign against 
a proposed medical marijuana dispensary in the neighborhood is 
misguided. Memories of the old Combat Zone seem to haunt the 
dispensary's opponents, but a small, highly secure medical marijuana 
facility poses no threat to the neighborhood's comeback. It deserves 
the city's approval.

Patriot Care Corp., which has also won medical marijuana licenses in 
Greenfield and Lowell, wants to operate a small facility at 21 Milk 
Street. It will have no conspicuous signage, and will be open only to 
patients who have a medical marijuana card issued by the state. A 
voter referendum in 2012 authorized the cards, and the dispensaries. 
However one feels about the policy - this page editorialized against 
it - medical marijuana is now the law of the Commonwealth, and the 
downtown dispensary would meet the goals of a referendum that 63 
percent of the state supported.

In its defense, the company cites its dispensary in Washington, D.C.; 
crime in the area has actually dropped faster than the citywide 
average. The company has also offered to pay for police details in 
the initial period after it opens. It has also promised that it will 
only sell medical marijuana, and will not convert the Milk Street 
storefront to a retail outlet if recreational marijuana is eventually 
legalized.

The business district has an understandable sensitivity to "adult" 
industries. The strip clubs in the area once gave it a seedy 
reputation, and it has taken years of diligent effort to shake off 
that past. But while Patriot Care offers facts to support its claims, 
the opponents offer only fears about a speculative increase in drug 
sales or use. Yet a highly regulated, low-visibility clinic that's 
only open during business hours has nothing in common with the blight 
of yesteryear.

Indeed, the dispensary is much more likely to do good than harm. It 
will fill real estate that's been empty for 10 years, and create 
jobs. Patriot Care has also offered free office space to neighborhood 
groups. And while it's hard to predict its impact on the 
already-thriving illegal marijuana industry in Downtown Crossing, it 
seems plausible that a licensed medical marijuana facility will 
divert business from street dealers.

Finally, the needs of patients also deserve consideration. The 
Downtown Crossing location would offer public transportation access 
to medical marijuana; it makes sense for at least one of the state's 
dispensaries to be accessible to those unable to drive. It would be 
in keeping with the intent of a law that Massachusetts voters - 
including, overwhelmingly, the precincts in Downtown Crossing - 
approved to ensure access to medical marijuana to all residents who need it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom