Cape Cannabiz Evolves

 How will state and national policies impact local Cape cannabis industry?

What is happening with "cannabiz" on Cape Cod?

14 February 2025 - WELLFLEET, MA - Since Massachusetts approved recreational marijuana in November 2016, "Cannabiz" has sprouted into an industry on Cape Cod. As the business evolves, dispensary industry pioneer Zach Ment from Wellfleet's The Piping Plover shares how state and national trends might impact the sector's future.

Will national policy change the industry?

Ment expects that at national level, little will change within Massachusetts cannabiz industry -- although in states without an existing structure it could be a different story.

"There was a lot of hope that things would get descheduled ....  in other states  people will continue to go to jail unnecessarily, people will not have access to the medicine they need. But in Massachusetts I think its going to be at least four more years of the same."

Will there be state updates?

The regulatory environment in Massachusetts has continued to evolve as the models for both medical and recreational use have also evolved. "We're created this template over the past 8 years ... and they are continuing work on it," he said, noting that after some growing pains this has now become a positive process.

"In 2018 everyone was promised the world, if you got to be an owner of a cannabis business you were going to have generational wealth ... and that always seemed a little unrealistic to me," he said.

One big issue that has now been worked through involved municipal fees. The original state legislation taxed recreational sales at 20%, with 3% going to the municipality where the dispensary was located. Towns also had the option of asking for up to an additional 3% in community fees to offset other expenses - to go toward things like drug use prevention programs, parking management, and the like. This second 3% quickly became mired in controversy with questions over where those dollars actually went, but over the past two years additional legislation clarified the structure.

What is the future of the cannabiz industry on Cape Cod?

The future looks very much like the future of many other local businesses.  "You saw some stores closing, others opening," Mant said. "Things were shaking out where people were deciding which businesses they wanted to support, and which businesses will survive into the future and which won't."