As the legal jangling over Maine’s new law allowing retail sales of marijuana continues, and would-be growers snap up commercial real estate around the state, the potentially new business brings with it high startup and ongoing costs.
Take it from Patricia Rosi, CEO of Wellness Connection of Maine, which has been growing and dispensing medical cannabis for half a dozen years. Medical and recreational marijuana is expected to be at least a $20 billion industry nationwide by 2020. In Maine, Rosi estimates it could generate $200 million to $250 million in sales. By comparison, the state’s lobster catch was valued at $495 million in 2015. Rosi says her company plans to get into the recreational business when the time is right because it already has the infrastructure and investments. Cannabis is the scientific name for the plant and its products, whereas marijuana, pot and weed are generic words.
But buyer beware is her recommendation to newcomers wishing to get into the recreational business.
“People shouldn’t go beyond paying for a warehouse now,” she advises, because of the moratoria in some towns and the clarity that’s still needed in the law and how it is implemented.
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Read Lori Valigra’s full article at mainebiz.com
Photo credit: Tim Greenway
