Retired cop hints at possible pot dispensary in city
WOONSOCKET — A retired city policeman who’s affiliated with medical marijuana facilities in Fall River and Warwick says his employers would launch a “compassion center” dispensary here if they can obtain one of the new licenses envisioned in Gov. Gina Raimondo’s budget – and the City Council approves.
Edward Roy, who retired from the Woonsocket Police Department in 2006, now works as head of security for Hope Heal Health, which opened a few days ago in Fall River. It’s a medical marijuana cultivation center and dispensary that’s partly owned by Roy’s son, Chris Roy, and family friend John Rogue. The two are also the sole proprietors of Medici Products and Solutions in Warwick, which grows cannabis for the existing compassion centers in Rhode Island.
Raimondo’s budget, which includes legislation to legalize recreational cannabis for sale in retail shops, additionally calls for doubling the number of available state licenses for compassion centers from three to six. Roy says if Medici can get one of the new licenses and the City Council approves, the company would launch the facility in the city. Roy
“Northern Rhode Island needs a location and I’ve been a member of the community for 40 years. I’d rather have it in Woonsocket than go someplace else.”
—Retired city police officer Edward Roy, above
said Medici already has a location picked out, but he won’t say where – at least for now.
“Northern Rhode Island needs a location and I’ve been a member of the community for 40 years,” said Roy. “I’d rather have it in Woonsocket than go to Cumberland or Lincoln or someplace else.”
Roy said such a facility would create “many jobs,” including positions for security guards, sales, patient advocates, packers and office work.
Roy was among a handful of spectators who attended a workshop of the City Council Monday in which the subject of marijuana – and how the city might respond if Raimondo’s proposals are embraced by the General Assembly – was among the topics up for discussion.
Since the session was a non-voting workshop, Roy was not allowed to speak, though he asked for the opportunity to do so at the end of the meeting.
During the meeting, Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt acknowledged that “a couple” of parties had approached the city to see if it would be receptive to hosting a compassion center – provided the General Assembly creates new licenses, as Raimondo proposes. She didn’t identify any companies or individuals associated with the inquiries, but Roy later told The Call that one of them came from Medici.
Baldelli-Hunt said that knowing where the council stands on the issue would greatly aide the administration in providing guidance to the proponents of such a center, should state licensing become available.
“Folks who are looking to acquire one of these licenses, they’re visiting communities to get an idea of what their
take is on it because they are putting packages together where they are offering municipalities incentives for them to be there,” the mayor said at one point.
Councilors gave little indication whether they’d be likely to support a medical marijuana dispensary, or compassion center, as they’re called by the state Department of Business Regulation.
Councilman John Ward, however, pointed out the city already allows compassion center investors to petition the Zoning Board of Review for a permit to operate. Ward authored the 2010 legislation that grants the zoning board the authority to grant special use permits for compassion centers to operate in commercial zones, provided they’re not too close to schools, nearby residences, churches, day care centers and other facilities where children congregate.
The law also grants the council veto power over the zoning board should the panel grant such a permit.
But Roy says the vetting process the DBR puts applicants for dispensary licenses through is so exhaustive, cumbersome and costly, Medici would be more confident about jumping into the sea of paperwork if it knew beforehand that it had an approved location.
If Medici was sure the council didn’t want a dispensary, it’s likely the company would look elsewhere.
“I only approached Woonsocket to see if they’re willing to let it happen,” said Roy. “We’re sending out feelers, basically.”
Roy, 63, worked for 25 years as a policeman in Woonsocket, including a stint as an undercover officer who chased after individuals selling illegal drugs, including marijuana. But Roy says “Times change,” and he no longer sees a regulated market for medical or recreation-
al marijuana as a threat to the community.
In addition to creating new compassion center licenses, Raimondo’s budget proposes legalizing recreational marijuana. Roy says if that happened, Medici would seek to supply marijuana for both medical and recreational markets from the facility the company seeks in the city.
“I have no intention of becoming involved with a bad company,” said Roy. “I live here. I’m not trying to do anything that’s going to hurt anybody or have an adverse impact on the community.”
Roy acknowledges there are major hypotheticals associated with Medici’s plans – among them – whether the General Assembly will adopt any or all of Raimondo’s proposals. But if it does, he said that Medici expects the competitive environment for licenses to be so hot, it’s worth attempting to get ahead of the pack by publicly asserting the company’s local interests.
“Basically, I’m doing this entirely on speculation that the state is going to move forward,” said Roy.
Indeed, much of the talk at Monday’s council meeting concerned the possibility of state lawmakers embracing retail pot shops, which are already sprouting up in nearby Massachusetts. City Solicitor John DeSimone said Raimondo’s legislative proposal gives cities and towns until Nov. 5 to hold a special election to allow voters to decide whether to prohibit such stores from operating within their borders.
“Quite frankly, I don’t think it’s going to pass,” said DeSimone, a former House majority leader who served many years in the legislature. “If it does pass, it’s probably going to be in June and that would give the council ample time to set up a special election if need be.”
One member of the council bristled at Raimondo’s marijuana proposals.
“Doesn’t this just reek of legislative overreach?” said Council Vice President Jon Brien, also a former legislator. “They’re basically saying you get one shot to control your own destiny and if you do not, you’re out.”
Baldelli-Hunt suggested that councilors pass a resolution to let the city’s House and Senate delegation know where they stand on recreational marijuana and the expansion of the compassion center licenses.
“Let’s face it, if this is going to pass, it’s going to pass, resolutions or no resolutions,” she said. “But at a minimum if you have a position it’s good to put it forth for the symbolic look of it, where your representatives and senators understand where you stand as a body.”