Who Wants the Walmart of Weed, Chuck?

No one.

This explains why, in its “rulemaking” around cannabis, Littleton’s Select Board—with you, Chuck, as the board’s go-to guy for all things cannabis (GTG4ATC)—made sure to emphasize the board’s goal was to prioritize that its two cannabis retail licenses (HCAs, really) go to “local owner(s)/operator(s).”

The “dream” would be to find known Littletonians to usher cannabis into town, because, as you pointed out over and over, Chuck, “no one wants the Walmart of weed” in our little town as this would be just one more thing to chip away at Littleton’s (semi-delusional self-regard of its) “rural character.” Many people in town applauded the Select Board’s policy-enshrined rejection of Big Cannabis, reasoning that if cannabis had to come to town—which, legally, it did, based on how 01460 voted on Q4 in late 2016—at least Littletonians would be the ones to sell the recently legalized product.

By the time Littleton got around to formalizing its search for applicants interested in being owner/operators, Jason Sidman (your “friend”/CEO of Sanctuary Medicinals, Inc.) already had (as I understand it) submitted applications to three other municipalities (not 01460) seeking HCAs, aka, “licenses to print money.”

So, if Sanctuary (“Jay,” as you call him) managed to convince those three municipalities that Sanctuary was the cannabis entity to select from all the other applicants, then Jay would have his three (the most allowed by law) recreational cannabis shops in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Each shop would easily earn him, as “owner/operator,” millions and millions, year after year.

Of course, as Littleton (you, really) worked on the rules, you must have realized that Jay wouldn’t be a “top candidate” for a recreational license in town. First off, Sanctuary Medicinals, Inc. is, objectively, Big Cannabis. Second, Jay’s not from Littleton, not even from Massachusetts. Come to think of it, I think you said he’s from Florida.

Your rulemaking put your “friend” Jay at a huge disadvantage. There’d be no way for him to beat out, let’s say, a couple of middle-aged women from Littleton (neither of whom had any experience in “the cannabis industry”) simply based on the “local preference” goal that you articulated.

Now, here’s where I have to venture a guess on what happened next, way back in late 2018/early 2019:

Your friend Jay is sitting on a mountain of cash. From this vantage point, he can easily see an entire navy of money-heavy boats. Sensing an opportunity for further wealth, he turns to you, Chuck, and says something like, “Since you were the one to promote the idea that Littleton’s cannabis shops be run by locals, you’re going to need to find me a local.”

(You find David for Jay.)

Or maybe, David came to you and offered himself up as the “local guy,” knowing that you, as the GTG4ATC, have an established relationship with Jay and Sanctuary Medicinals, Inc.

(You connect David to Jay.)

Or perhaps, the idea was all yours.

TTYS,

Jkb