Tyler and Justin Go Back a Few Years
When Community Care Collective made its presentation to Littleton’s Select Board in May 2019, Select Board member Chuck Decoste asked David Giannetta to tell the Select Board about Sanctuary’s intriguing “incubator program”—likely because David Giannetta had just represented to the Select Board that he would be participating in this “incubator program,” though maybe Chuck Decoste wanted some company in, what appears now to have been, some Sanctuary ring-kissing.
If you click HERE and go to minute marker 2:08:24 of that Select Board meeting, you’ll see how David Giannetta fields Chuck’s let’s-hear-all-about-wonderful-Sanctuary question.
At first, David Giannetta asks Chuck if Jason Sidman (seated right there in the front row) could answer, triggering Chuck’s imploring glance to Select Board Chair Joe Knox, who, himself, did not have time to “rule” on whether to allow Jason Sidman to address the Select Board before Jason Sidman speaks up, names his business (Sanctuary), names the street it’s on (Taylor), and asks if it would be “okay” for him to speak, which, by any objective measure, Jason Sidman’s already been doing, and graciously, Chairman Knox says, “Yes.”
With all eyes on him, Jason Sidman uses the spotlight to explain how Sanctuary has been “approached by many, many operators in the state [sic] to wholesale [sic] product from us [Sanctuary]. . . . We are very selective with who [sic] we work with [sic] because, you know, we’re creating a brand here. We’re a multi-state operator.”
Then, to put a finer point of his Big Cannabis chops, Jason Sidman mentions Sanctuary’s “over four years” in New Hampshire and Sanctuary’s 35 (thirty-five) dispensaries going in in Florida and supplying Massachusetts’s “only equity empowerment group in the state [sic], Caroline’s dispensary” before eventually circling back to Littleton and Community Care Collective and saying, “He came to me earlier, David [Giannetta] did, and we were talking, months ago, about his plans for Littleton. . . . We [Sanctuary], for the record as you know, we were looking to locate a dispensary here [in Littleton] a year ago. Unfortunately, I’m not here before you today [to make a pitch for Sanctuary to be awarded an HCA for a recreational cannabis shop in Littleton] because we’re maxed out on our license count.”
By his own admission, Jason Sidman is fully aware of the legal limits, i.e., license caps, imposed by the Cannabis Control Commission.
Jason Sidman goes on to say, “We would’ve loved to put a dispensary in Littleton, as you know. So that being said, the next best option for us is to work cooperatively with people who really take great pride in ownership and Littleton itself. And, you know, we’ve been an excellent community member,”—nowadays, a debatable assertion—“and I’d love nothing more than to work with both groups [Community Care Collective and Littleton Apothecary] and seeing to it that they both succeed . . . . I think that we [Sanctuary] can add a whole lot of benefit to both operations.”
Emphasis mine on “next best option.”
As generous as it might sound for Jason Sidman to offer to “work with both groups,” savvy businesspeople—of which I certainly count Jason Sidman as one, just look how well he’s done here in Littleton—want to make money.
The more the better.
And what better way to ensure your Littleton-grown cannabis and Made-in-Littleton cannabis-infused products get to consumers than to enter into 100% wholesale agreements with the only two shops in Littleton (capitalistic or monopolistic?) and the “many, many operators” who don’t have their own cannabis grow facilities?
Jason Sidman formed this “next-best-thing” business relationship with David Giannetta, who called it a “strategic alliance,” evoking, in my mind, the Death Star and monochromatic one-piece uniforms with impossibly long zippers.
I suspect this “strategic alliance” exists with Billerica’s Community Care Collective recreational cannabis shop as well.
And these “strategic alliances” didn’t end with David Giannetta.
Jason Sidman and/or Sanctuary Medicinals are named as the wholesaler of cannabis and cannabis-infused products in the HCA proposals for (at least) another aspiring “printer of money”: Keltic Green, Inc.
Keltic submitted proposals to open three (the cap is three) recreational cannabis shops: one for Malden in June 2019, one for Boston in September 2019, and the last for Watertown in November 2019.
However, months before Keltic began making its public pitches, specifically on April 3, 2019, Keltic Green, Inc. amended its corporate filings and changed the location of its principal office (and where Keltic’s records would thereafter be kept) from an address in North Easton, MA to 41 Matawanakee Trail in Littleton and named Justin Smith as Keltic’s new President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Director.
Then, the very next day, on April 4th, two things happened:
First, Justin Smith relinquished his titles of President, Treasurer, and Secretary of the corporation he owned half of, i.e., Community Care Collective and handed those roles over to David Giannetta.
Second, Community Care Collective’s new President, David Giannetta, named himself Resident Agent and listed 37 Spartan Arrow Road as the Resident Agent’s address. Then the next day, in a separate filing, David Giannetta lists 37 Spartan Arrow Road as the corporation’s principal place of business and where the records for Community Care Collective, Inc. would be kept.
Later, David Giannetta filed an Article of Amendment, changing the ownership of Community Care Collective’s stock from a 50/50 split between himself and Justin Smith to 100% to be owned by David Giannetta, thereby leaving Justin Smith with 0%.
But, don’t forget, Justin Smith had 100% of Keltic Green, Inc.
Well, from what I found, things didn’t go great for Keltic.
Malden didn’t enter into an HCA with Keltic despite being told that Keltic’s wholesale supplier would be Sanctuary and that Sanctuary would supply products and a processing facility, and Sanctuary would also be offering Keltic training and mentorship (Sanctuary’s incubator program perhaps?) to Keltic’s employees, and that Sanctuary may assist with hiring.
Boston did not enter into an HCA with Keltic to put a recreational cannabis shop in South Boston.
Watertown also did not enter into an HCA with Keltic even though Keltic had entered into a “distribution agreement” with Sanctuary Medicinals and had represented in its 151-page proposal that once Keltic receives approval to operate Keltic would “immediately have access to a steady supply” of Sanctuary’s premium cannabis and cannabis-infused products.
While I could not readily find Keltic’s proposal to Boston, I suspect that it was much like Keltic’s other two proposals, both of which Tyler O’Hazo is named as Keltic’s Chief Operating Officer.
Justin Smith and Tyler O’Hazo were both part of Keltic Green, Inc. back in 2019. And back in 2019, Sanctuary was there.
And recently, Justin Smith and Tyler O’Hazo were cc’ed on an email from Atty Glenn P. Frank to Littleton’s Planning Board, where Atty. Frank was looking for an extension of Matthew’s wife’s Special Permit for Littleton Apothecary, aka, Littleton’s-never-opened-because-she-got-paid-not-to (IMO) recreational cannabis shop.
You might be thinking what I was thinking when I first discovered these connections—David Giannetta to Justin Smith (founders of Community Care Collective); Jason Sidman to David Giannetta (“strategic alliance” between Sanctuary and Community Care Collective); Jason Sidman to Justin Smith (“distribution agreement” between Sanctuary and Keltic); Justin Smith to Tyler O’Hazo (Keltic’s owner and Keltic’s Chief Operating Officer); Justin Smith/Tyler O’Hazo to Atty. Frank—that Atty. Frank might have Jason Sidman’s interests in mind vis a vis Littleton Apothecary, in other words, that Jason Sidman would still “love nothing more than to work with both groups [Community Care Collective and Littleton Apothecary].”
But then again, as a savvy businessperson, maybe Jason Sidman isn’t interested in forming any “strategic alliance” or “distribution agreements” with Justin Smith and Tyler O’Hazo since that duo managed to fail—three times—to get an HCA elsewhere.
Or maybe it’s something in between,
Jenna