Five RI medical pot dispensaries licensed to sell recreational weed starting Dec. 1

Tom Mooney, The Providence Journal
·2 min read
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PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island has licensed five of its six operating medical marijuana dispensaries to begin selling the drug for recreational use as well starting Dec. 1, when the state’s legalization goes into effect.

The newest of those five businesses opened for medical sales last week. Mother Earth Wellness, in Pawtucket, opened at 125 Esten Ave., and co-owner Joseph Pakuris said then “people are showing up.”

Recreational sales are expected to eclipse medical sales quickly, he said, especially with the number of registered medical marijuana patients in Rhode Island continuing to decline.

“I think 70% of the business will be recreational,” said Pakuris.

The number of medical marijuana patients has been declining each month since July 2021, when 19,439 were registered through the state, according to data kept by the Department of Business Regulation.

The bright, expansive showroom of the newest of Rhode Island's six medical marijuana dispensaries, Mother Earth Wellness, in Pawtucket, which is among the five dispensaries licensed to begin selling recreational marijuana Dec. 1. Co-owner Joseph Pakuris predicts recreational marijuana will account for 70% of Mother Earth's sales.
The bright, expansive showroom of the newest of Rhode Island's six medical marijuana dispensaries, Mother Earth Wellness, in Pawtucket, which is among the five dispensaries licensed to begin selling recreational marijuana Dec. 1. Co-owner Joseph Pakuris predicts recreational marijuana will account for 70% of Mother Earth's sales.

As of October, Rhode Island had 15,714 registered patients, a drop of 21% since July 2021. Regulators have attributed much of the decrease to patients buying their medicine without the hassle of state regulations at the growing number of Massachusetts retail pot shops along the Rhode Island border. (Massachusetts opened its first retail stores in 2018.)

With Rhode Island this year joining 20 other states in legalizing adult recreational marijuana sales, the state will hopefully be able to start winning back millions of dollars in tax revenue lost to Massachusetts, said Pakuris.

“This will be huge for Rhode Island now that they have centers that can sell recreational,” he said. “This is going to be a huge draw. There is definitely going to be a lot of people that are going to come back over from Massachusetts.”

The other dispensaries now licensed to sell the drug for recreational use are:

Aura of Rhode Island, 1136 Lonsdale Ave., Central Falls, and the three early established dispensaries that began opening in 2013: The Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center, 1 Corliss St., Providence; Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center, 1637 West Main Road, Portsmouth; and RISE Warwick, formerly the Summit Medical Compassion Center, on Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick.

Rhode Island’s sixth operating medical marijuana dispensary, Sweetspot Dispensary, in South Kingstown, “has not yet submitted an application” to also sell recreational cannabis, said Matthew Santacroce, interim deputy director for the Department of Business Regulation.

Sweetspot opened in June, offering home delivery only of its medical marijuana products; it does not operate a retail store at its location at 91 Pershing Ave.

While home delivery of recreational pot is allowed under the state’s new legalization law, “we have not had any requests from dispensaries to do so,” Santacroce said.

Email Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI dispensaries now licensed to sell recreational pot, too, come Dec