The Ellsworth City Council voted Tuesday evening to deny a new business license for a Maine medical cannabis dispensary chain that recently made headlines for triggering the state’s first-ever patient advisory after products from its Waterville store tested positive for pesticides.
The vote passed 6-1, with Councilor Steven O’Halloran opposed. Prior to the vote, City Council adopted revisions to performance standards involving medical and adult-use cannabis shops.
Just two days after the council tabled a vote last month on MarijuanaVille’s application in order for city staff to update its licensing criteria, state cannabis regulators issued a patient advisory. Concentrate products sold at the chain’s Waterville location tested positive for “unsafe levels” of bifenthrin, a pesticide.
“I’m pretty concerned about the health issue regarding this business,” Council Chair Patrick Lyons said. He went on to read some of the advisory’s findings, including that regulators found some products with pesticides at 190 times the acceptable level.
This was the first warning of its kind issued by the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy.
MarijuanaVille’s owner Frank Berenyi did not respond to requests for comment from the Bangor Daily News.
Councilors were also concerned that MarijuanaVille was not in compliance with the city’s new licensing criteria for medical cannabis dispensaries, which they adopted today.
“I don’t think it’s the right location, and this business hasn’t satisfied our licensing criteria,” Lyons said.
MarijuanaVille, which is one of the state’s largest medical marijuana chains, has already purchased Boss Lady Genetics, the current medical marijuana dispensary that sits at 71 Main St. in Ellsworth’s downtown.
Although the purchase is complete, business licenses are not transferable, requiring MarijuanaVille to apply for a new license, which has now been denied.
Medical marijuana dispensaries are only allowed to operate in urban, commercial and industrial zones, according to city ordinance. Curaleaf is the only dispensary that adheres to that rule, City Manager Charles Pearce said. The city’s revised performance standards do not include changes to zoning usage.
Boss Lady Genetics was originally permitted to open at its Main Street location, which is in the city’s downtown zone, due to “some initial confusion or misunderstanding regarding the nature of the business,” according to a Tuesday city memo. Boss Lady Genetics, which had already been issued a state license, was then deemed a “grandfathered location” by the city and allowed to operate as is, until its sale.
The performance standards for medical dispensaries were previously not up to date with the state’s latest statutes, complicating the city’s ability to “conduct thorough inspections for the license,” according to a Jan. 20 city memo.
Standards for adult use cannabis stores now align with those of medical marijuana dispensaries, the city’s director of urban planning and development, Danielle Gift said. The City Council voted to approve those revisions Tuesday evening.
The revisions include conditions for design standards, signs, parking, security, hours of operation, odor and waste management. The update also lifted a requisite that dispensaries must be not-for-profit, a former state requirement that’s no longer in effect.
MarijuanaVille operates 12 locations, most of which are in central Maine, but has plans to open a dispensary in Presque Isle.