Sunday Evening Long Read, Littleton
Soon after Littleton’s first recreational cannabis shop opened in town, in early 2022, several people began asking the Select Board what it could do—as the local licensing authority—to get Matthew’s wife to open Littleton Apothecary. Because Matthew had become the Select Board’s chair in May 2022—and was charged with setting the Select Board’s agendas—I had low hopes that our Select Board would do anything to address the issue.
However, Littleton was at least told, in the fall of 2022, that the Select Board’s “hands were tied.” For the next year, the Planning Board had—for lack of a better word—jurisdiction over the Apothecary’s Special Permit, which would lapse in the fall of 2023.
In the spring of 2023, I read POVERTY, BY AMERICA by Matthew Desmond, and on July 24, 2023, I wrote:
In the next weeks and months, I will be constructing a plan to open the first retail cannabis store in the nation—specifically, in Littleton, Massachusetts—where 100% of the profits go directly to the people in Littleton who do not have enough money to meet their basic needs. These people who live right here with us, many working full-time jobs, still can’t make ends meet.
The profit margins in the cannabis industry have made the rich-to-start a whole lot richer. Those who had capital and managed to leverage it within the nascent cannabis industry became obscenely rich individuals.
They became obscenely rich because the money in this industry is obscene.
I hoped that if the Apothecary’s Special Permit lapsed, I’d have a chance to move forward with this radical idea of abolishing poverty locally. In the meantime, I’d be patient. I’d write about poverty in Littleton and hand out envelopes of cash. Maybe I could get a few people on board with this project, maybe there would be like-minded people in positions of power—elected public officials—who would see this as a real opportunity to help others. And as of December 2021, there was no more philanthropic benefit Littleton could look forward to coming from the Apothecary: the Littleton Project, as per Matthew’s wife, was dead.
In the summer and fall of 2023—in my weekly POT TWIST “dispatches”—I kept making the same public policy argument: the license to sell recreational cannabis came into existence from a public vote and, I asserted, the profits from that license ought to be put to real and meaningful public good.
On October 16, 2023, Miten of MRM told me that Matthew’s wife had sold the Apothecary. When I said, “It’s a license,” I said, “not an asset that can be bought and sold,” Miten said, “Well, your ex-partner sold it for two million. And if it comes up for sale, we’re going to buy it.” Click HERE for that backstory.
On November 3, 2023, Lawson & Weitzen Attorney Glenn P. Frank wrote to the Planning Board, ostensibly on Masood Shaikh’s behalf, requesting an extension on Matthew’s wife’s (by then) lapsed Special Permit.
Keep in mind that all of the Apothecary’s unpaid back rent (over $60,000.00) was paid out of Lawson & Weitzen’s law firm’s account in one big check and then, thereafter—according to both the former and current owners of 160 Ayer Road—the Apothecary’s monthly rent came in—and presumably continues to come in—“on time and in full” by wire transfer from Lawson & Weitzen.
Lawson & Weitzen was/is paying the Apothecary’s rent, and yet, Lawson & Weitzen was/is not representing the Apothecary in this email communication, Quinn Heath was representing the Apothecary/Matthew’s wife.
So, who was Atty. Frank really representing? Masood Shaikh? MRM? MR3? None of the above.
I have to admit, that when I learned that Lawson & Weitzen had represented Sanctuary, I thought maybe Jason Sidman might have been behind this November 3, 2023 request to extend the Apothecary’s Special Permit.
Although I’ve not 100% ruled out anything when it comes to cannabis and the wild-west way Littleton seems to be dealing with the administration of the various licenses, I did find this:
And, to be fair, despite “strategic alliances” and “distribution agreements,” I’ve yet to find any documentation of an ownership interest in the many, many cannabis shops that Sanctuary supplies. However, if a cultivator/manufacturer and a recreational seller agree that 100% of the shop’s stock will come from that one cultivator/manufacturer, reasonable minds might conclude that—in practical terms—it sure feels real close to an ownership interest.
It’s important to additionally note that Jason Sidman wasn’t cc’ed on Atty. Frank’s November 3, 2023 email—though Tyler O’Hazo and Justin Smith both are.
On November 16, 2023, the matter of whether to extend the Apothecary’s Special Permit was discussed by the Planning Board. Click HERE and go to the 1:54:46 mark.
At that meeting, Planning Board member Jeff Yates said, “Could we just go over the issue, where the license is being transferred?”
When I heard that, I wondered how Jeff Yates was led to believe that Littleton Apothecary’s license was being transferred and then I wondered how Matthew’s wife could, herself, believe that the license was transferrable without getting permission from, first, the local licensing authority, i.e., Littleton’s Select Board, and thereafter, from the Cannabis Control Commission.
During the Planning Board’s discussion of the Apothecary’s never-acted-upon Special Permit, Chairperson Mark Montanari makes it clear that “the issue is really whether anything was done; not whether it’s for sale or not . . . . We shouldn’t be worried about the lawyer who’s trying to buy it telling us what we should and shouldn’t do.”
Oh, so not a “transfer” (as Jeff thought)—but a whole-cloth sale, to a lawyer.
Of course, my first question was “Who’s this lawyer trying to buy Matthew’s wife’s non-operational business?”
I went back and re-read the email exchange between Atty. Frank and Littleton’s Planning Board. There wasn’t anything in that back-and-forth that mentioned a “lawyer who’s trying to buy” Littleton Apothecary. However, that exchange—click HERE—included this question from the Planning Board to Atty. Frank:
To this question, Atty. Frank deferred to Matthew’s wife’s lawyer to answer. Here’s the reply Atty. Quinn Heath gave on behalf of Matthew’s wife:
Keep in mind that Matthew’s wife’s lawyer—Blake Mensing of The Mensing Group—formed MRM Industries in November 2021 and Masood Shaikh’s name was on the Certificate of Organization:
So, what’s this ECCC?
According to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, ECCC, LLC was formed in 2016: “To provide real estate investment and management services.” This didn’t seem right to me.
Later, after much digging, I found this:
On June 3, 2022, Atty. Glenn P. Frank was named the Registered Agent of EAST COAST CANNABIS CLUB, LLC, which was formed by this person:
Remember her?
She’s Tyler O’Hazo’s wife.
The same Tyler O’Hazo who is cc’ed in Atty. Frank’s November 3, 2023 email communication with the Planning Board:
And the other person cc’ed? Justin Smith.
You will recall that KELTIC GREEN, Inc., in 2019, had applied to open three recreational cannabis shops in Malden, Boston, and Watertown. At that time, Tyler O’Hazo was named as Keltic’s Chief Operating Officer. Justin Smith was named as Keltic’s owner/operator. And Sanctuary was going to supply Keltic Green with an immediate and steady supply of Littleton-grown cannabis.
And now, four years after Keltic failed to be awarded any HCAs, Justin Smith is also cc’ed on Atty. Frank’s 11/3/23 email to Littleton’s Planning Board.
Justin Smith, who used to co-own Community Care Collective with this guy:
David Giannetta, who has a “strategic alliance” with this guy:
Jason Sidman, whose corporation, Sanctuary Medicinals came to Littleton in 2016 and has a license to grow cannabis—which can be smelled from a quarter mile away—thanks to the HCA Sanctuary got after negotiating with this guy:
Chuck Decoste, who’s been on the Select Board since 2015 and serving alongside this guy:
Matthew Nordhaus, whose wife wants a second bite at the Special-Permit apple:
And on Thursday, February 1st at 7:05, Littleton’s Planning Board will discuss Matthew’s wife’s request to reconsider the Apothecary’s Special Permit.