A Newington medical marijuana dispensary is one step closer to getting the green light from the town to expand into recreational sales sometime in 2022.
The dispensary is called “Fine Fettle” and is on the Berlin Turnpike.
The company said they presented their pitch to Newington’s Planning and Zoning Commission yesterday and it was approved, providing Fine Fettle with another big piece of the puzzle to be able to operate in town
The company’s chief operating officer said he’s seen other towns saying “no” to allowing recreational marijuana shops to open up, and he think they may regret that someday. And though there are more hurdles ahead, he’s also excited that Newington is saying yes, at least so far.
“Of the 18 current medical dispensaries in the state, we’re the first one to receive that special permit, from my understanding, to have the ability to sell to both our medical customers and adult use recreational customers in the same facility, in the same building. So it’s an incredibly big step for us and, even bigger in the macro sense, for the state of Connecticut to that there’s going to be a place where those who are above 21 will be able to buy legal marijuana without a medical card,” Fine Fettle COO Benjamin Zachs told NBC Connecticut.
Zachs said Fine Fettle has been laying the groundwork for this moment for a while. They have the space needed, and now, it’s about growing the number of staffers to be ready for what could be coming.
“We have an accounting department. We have a finance department. We have a marketing team. We customer service in the cultivation facilities. There’s agriculture, there’s a lot of biochemistry around extraction. There’s cooking courses. There’s so many things that this industry touches,” Zachs said.
As mentioned, there’s still more work to do before this is a done deal. The town’s vote yesterday is just a first step.
Under the state’s new recreational marijuana law, the Department of Consumer Protection is tasked with actually giving licenses out to retailers, which is likely not happening until at least the spring of 2022.
Where those licenses go is up to the newly formed Social Equity Council, which aims to make sure recreational marijuana businesses help those who’ve been impacted by the war on drugs.
