Hoping to take advantage of Massachusetts’ burgeoning medical cannabis market, a marijuana firm with operations in multiple states has filed for a permit to open a 52-acre grow facility in Freetown, about 50 miles south of Boston.
AmeriCann President and CEO Tim Keogh told The Standard-Times Friday that the publicly traded firm hopes to close the land sale and have its first permits by December.
The goal is to be ready to start construction at the first spring thaw. The town’s planning board will consider the application on Nov. 24.
If the company wins approval, its cultivation facility will lease space to marijuana growers who are certified by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The department is currently reviewing about 100 applications, Keogh said, and AmeriCann has space for two.
AmeriCann is a multi-faceted company that focuses on licensing, consulting, constructing commercial grows and manufacturing infused products. It currently has operations in Colorado and Illinois.
So far, three of 18 dispensaries that won state licenses have opened in Massachusetts, but observers expect that many more will open between now and next autumn.
The state is accepting license applications on a rolling basis, and there’s no cap on the number of permits that can be issued.
Through Oct. 31, nearly 15,000 medical marijuana patients were registered in state.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story reported that AmeriCann was viewing about 100 applications for growing space in the company’s proposed facility. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is actually the entity doing the vetting.
