Cannabis Control Commission To Vote On Final License For Boston's First Pot Shop
BOSTON (CBS) -- The opening of Pure Oasis in Dorchester has been three years in the making. Come Thursday, the shop will go before the Cannabis Control Commission for a final license vote.
"There is no real road map to this how to do it right, how to do it wrong. I think that certainly, these businesses have been waiting a long time but I don't know what we can compare it too," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said.
It would be Boston's first recreational pot shop. "It's the first shop that is going open up in our city, it's an equity candidate which makes it more special," Walsh explained.
The pot shop-to-be was the city's only applicant to get through the commission's economic empowerment program, which fast-tracks the review process for companies led by, employing, of benefiting members of communities hit hardest by crime and drug arrests.
If given the final OK, an empty storefront on Blue Hill Avenue will become Pure Oasis.
Not everyone is happy about the potential business. One of the shop's direct neighbors would be the Bethlehem Healing Temple.
"Our neighborhood is overrun by drugs," said Pastor Joe Swilley of Bethlehem Healing Temple. "I got a son messed up on that junk that's why I'm so angry."
He said he fears the community's problems will only get worse.
"We don't need that kind of revenue, we don't need it."
Kobie Evans would be the shop's co-owner. In July, he told WBZ-TV, "In most places, if you travel the country and ask and see for yourself, it's invisible. Truthfully, it's very professional because these are working-class people who have better things to do than stand around and get harassed by police for doing something that's illegal."
If approved Thursday, the Cannabis Control Commission would still have several more steps for Pure Oasis to take before it can open, including issuing a notice and a full inspection of inventory.
