Arthur “A.J.” Luke, of Lukes Liquors, sees marijuana as a gateway drug — but not in the traditional sense.
“The drug dealer is the gateway to hard drugs,” Luke said.
The same drug dealer who sells grams of weed in plastic baggies could very well be the source of heroin, pills and other hard drugs — all the customer has to do is ask, according to Luke. It’s the sale of marijuana that provides a steady business base for those in the drug trade, he said.
As Cape officials consider whether to ban recreational marijuana businesses within their borders, Luke, who voted against legalization, has assembled a team with a mission to change the attitude about marijuana in the region. They say smart retail sales of marijuana by local, cooperative and established businessmen like themselves — not outright bans — could have a positive effect on the addiction crisis and other social problems by choking out a key revenue source for drug dealers and improve public safety.
Falmouth, Dennis and Sandwich have approved bans on recreational marijuana dispensaries. Legislation signed July 28 by Gov. Charlie Baker allows selectmen or town councils in communities that rejected marijuana legalization at the ballot in November to implement bans unilaterally. That includes 11 Upper, Mid- and Lower Cape towns. Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet and Eastham, all of which supported legalization, would require a ballot vote to ban weed dispensaries.
Voters in Bourne, Harwich and Yarmouth approved temporary moratoriums on recreational marijuana licensing until various dates in 2018.
Luke’s team has varied backgrounds, but they’re united in a belief that Cape town’s could do more harm than good by passing bans. John Pomeroy is the liquor store chain’s assistant general manager and Adam Higgins is a digital marketer and “product expert” in his capacity as a medical marijuana patient. An unnamed third partner works on the Cape in the alcohol industry. He has not participated in the group’s’ public campaign, which has included radio appearances, and works behind the scenes.
One has to look no further than the current medical marijuana landscape to see what might happen if there are no recreational pot shops on the Cape, Higgins said. During a recent interview at the Lukes corporate offices, Higgins displayed a plethora of marijuana products, all of which he said he had delivered to his home. Some came from delivery services advertised on websites like AllBud.com and operate outside the state’s regulatory system, in what some in the industry say is a gray market at best. A state Department of Public Health spokeswoman declined to characterize them as illegal, though she said they operate outside the state’s “regulatory framework.” Many local patients turn to the services due to the lack of medical dispensaries on the peninsula.
“People (tourists) are going to be coming looking for this next summer,” Higgins said.
Basic economics suggests those tourists and locals alike will turn to gray and black market sources to find their high, the men said. The marijuana wouldn’t be subjected to testing, as required of weed sold in dispensaries, and edibles with dangerously high THC-levels could be sold, he said.
That would mean continuing to feed drug dealers’ businesses, and crime. Instead, as with Prohibition, shady deals should be brought into the light, the group says.
The group says if they find interested partner towns, they would be interested in working to develop a smart retail model for recreational marijuana, based on their collective 75 years experience selling alcohol, a highly regulated industry.
“We’re known as the strict liquor store,” Pomeroy said.
Working with towns means they wouldn’t sell edibles unless town officials gave the OK, for example. They’re not interested in growing, and would be interested in entering the industry if retail-only businesses were viable.
But they say their first mission is changing attitudes. They sent out informational packets to selectmen and town councilors on all 15 Cape towns but have yet to hear back from a single one. The invitation still stands, and the men say they’d love to start a dialogue.
One of the best arguments against welcoming marijuana into communities is it’s complicated legal status, said Linell Grundman, who has extensive experience in substance abuse prevention and public health.
“It’s still federally illegal — there’s no (federal) regulation, there’s no federal partners, there’s no additional money (for prevention efforts from the government) as there is with the alcohol and tobacco industry,” said Grundman, who was one of the people who successfully campaigned for a ban on marijuana businesses in Sandwich earlier this year. “All of that is just the wild, wild west.”
Welcoming pot shops to the Cape would contribute to the drug being further normalized and the risk of teens seeing it as a harmless substance, and therefore increasing its use, she said. Studies have shown that marijuana use can have permanent effects on a developing brain, she said.
And while Luke and his pro-marijuana business group say the tax income from pot shops could be a boon for towns and help fund prevention efforts, Grundman says that money would not pay for the associated social cost.
Normalizing the use of marijuana will come with an increase in use, which could bring problems such as an uptick in drugged driving, said Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Frederickson. There is currently no test like a blood alcohol tester to determine a person’s level of marijuana intoxication, making conviction and enforcement difficult, he said.
“You’re going to have more people who are going to be under the influence of another substance,” he said. “That is never a good thing.”
Link – Cape Cod Times
