Recreational pot shops hurting during pandemic, excluded from federal help

Nearly months into the shelter-in-place order, Massachusetts businesses are continuing to take a big hit. Among those businesses feeling the heat are adult-use marijuana dispensaries. Not only are these shops hurting, but they’ve also been excluded from receiving federal-level COVID-19 funds.

“The silver lining is we just had our first harvest…this could be perfect timing for when the market does reopen…we were able to get a big stock pile of supply and that should help the Mass. market, not just us.”

Solar Thera CEO Edward Dow sat down with NBC10’s Kelly O’Neil to discuss the current state of the Massachusetts cannabis industry, how the non-essential designation of adult-use is crushing business owners and the major cuts seen in sales tax revenue for the State and host communities.

“One fact I heard: over a million dollars a day in tax revenue is generated in Massachusetts to the state coffers, so that’s dried up to put a number on it. That’s just in lost tax revenue.”

The full report can be viewed here.