SOME SEE GREEN IN MEDICAL POT

Contractor Looks to Open Four of Maine's Eight Dispensaries

FARMINGTON -- A local contractor knows his plan to open half of the
state's medical marijuana dispensaries is ambitious

Even a hefty application fee and a competitive selection process
haven't kept Luke Sirois from trying.

When state voters approved medical marijuana dispensaries in
November, a lot of people had the same idea that Sirois had -- to get
in early on Maine's newest business.

The $15,000 application fee, however, deterred many of them. Still,
there probably will be between 20 and 40 applicants vying to run at
least one of the state's eight dispensaries, according to Jonathan
Leavitt, executive director of the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative.

Sirois, who owns Western Maine Electrical and Excavation, hopes to
open four of them.

"We're applying for four because we know we can handle four," Sirois
said Wednesday. "If we could get one, we'd feel like we accomplished
our mission."

Applications are due to the state by June 25, and the Department of
Health and Human Services will announce its selections on July 9. The
state will return all but $1,000 of the fee to applicants who aren't selected.

Sirois said putting together the applications to open dispensaries in
four locations, from York County to Bangor, has been a full-time job
for two months. He said he's already spent $10,000 on legal advice,
building plans and countless gallons of gas, not to mention the extra
money he's paying employees at his company to keep things running
smoothly while he and his wife Lisa, focus, on the dispensary plan.

Sirois said he's already received local approval to operate
dispensaries in Farmingdale and Wilton.

On Monday, he'll face the Farmington Planning Board for a review of
his proposal to turn a former Rite Aid into a dispensary, greenhouse,
garden store and health center.

The concept, called Ahead Care, would be the same for all the sites.
Sirois said he would need to hire between six and 10 employees to run
each center.

The dispensary portion would sell a variety of strains of medical
marijuana, as well as food and tinctures that contain the medicine.
The crop would be cultivated in an adjacent greenhouse, and a garden
store would sell tools and seeds for patients and caregivers to grow their own.

Eventually, Sirois hopes the centers would house offices for health
professionals, such as pain specialists and massage therapists.

Applicants aren't required to secure specific sites for the
dispensaries, but Sirois hopes the extra legwork will bolster his
chances of being selected by the state.

"I think it's going to be very competitive," said Catherine Cobb,
director of licensing and regulatory services, a division of the
Department of Health and Human Services.

Two weeks before the deadline, Cobb said she had yet to receive an
application. She suspects that's because the paperwork is considered
public record as soon as it's submitted, and applicants don't want to
reveal their plans to competitors.

When Sirois first started looking into running a dispensary, he said,
there was a community of people with the same idea, sharing thoughts
about how to make it happen.

After the state announced, in the first year of the new law, there
would only be eight dispensaries allowed, former collaborators became
competitors.

In the rules regulating the dispensary system, the state is divided
up into eight districts. According to Cobb, there's more than one
group planning to apply to run all eight dispensaries, though she
declined to identify them.

One applicant that's commonly known to be interested in running
dispensaries in the state is the Berkeley Patients Group, which
describes itself on its website as "one of California's largest and
most respected medical cannabis collectives."

The group's communications director did not return calls seeking
comment last week.

Sirois said he thinks it's unlikely that an out-of-state group would
be chosen to run Maine's entire dispensary system. He also thinks it
would be an unpopular decision.

"That's not what Maine people want to see," he said.

There are plenty of local groups working on applications, as well.

Sirois said he's most confident about his chances of being selected
to run a dispensary in the western district of Franklin, Oxford and
Androscoggin counties.

He already has the town of Wilton's approval to operate out of a
vacant building by Dexter Supply on U.S. Route 2 east. If the
Farmington Planning Board gives site plan approval for the former
Rite Aid on Monday, Sirois would be able to chose between the two sites.

Even in that district, however, he's not a shoo-in.

According to Poland Town Manager Dana Lee, a group of women operating
as Green Therapy of Maine has met with town officials, who were
receptive to the idea of having a dispensary in Poland.

"I think they came out enthused," Lee said about the group's reaction
to meeting with the planning board.

In the end, however, a lot of applicants' efforts will be all for
naught. Sirois just hopes he's not one of them.

"I'd be very disappointed to do all this work and get nothing out of
it," he said.