Pubdate: Mon, 29 Jan 2018
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2018 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Dan Adams

PROPOSAL FOR MASSIVE MARIJUANA FACILITY DIVIDES NORTH ANDOVER

NORTH ANDOVER - Dr. Jeff Goldstein is hunting for "a billion-dollar
molecule." But to find it, he first needs permission from residents
here to grow marijuana - actually, a stupendous amount of marijuana.

That's why, on Sunday afternoon, he was pacing anxiously behind a
small folding table in the lobby of Osgood Landing, the massive former
Lucent Technologies plant he bought with his wife in 2003 and now
hopes to convert into one of the world's largest indoor marijuana
growing and research centers.

Goldstein was hosting an open house for North Andover residents ahead
of a Town Meeting vote Tuesday on a series of bylaws that would pave
the way for his 1.1-million-square-foot marijuana facility. One would
authorize the town to negotiate compensation from his company,
Massachusetts Innovation Works, that could be worth $100 million over
20 years to North Andover.

"I live around the corner," Goldstein blurted out to one couple, eager
to prove his local credentials. "If you go down to Foster Street and
make a left, that's where I am."

Like many communities in Massachusetts, which in July will become the
first state east of the Mississippi to allow commercial pot sales,
North Andover is grappling with what it would mean to host such a
facility. Some residents think it would be a point of pride, putting
North Andover at the forefront of cannabis science; others are worried
the operation would normalize drug use for their children or define
the town as an epicenter of pot and make it a tempting target for
federal law enforcement raids.

The building complex dates to the 1950s, when Lucent's predecessors
made equipment for the old Bell telephone system. At its peak, before
global competition made it cheaper to produce telecom gear elsewhere,
the sprawling complex employed 12,000 people and constituted 10
percent of North Andover's tax base. Lucent stayed as a tenant until
2007, when it ended production.

Now, many North Andover residents are anxious to see the 169-acre,
half-empty property returned to full use. The $5 million annual
payment Goldstein has promised is more than 10 times the amount the
property currently generates in taxes.

A radiation oncologist, Goldstein became interested in the medicinal
possibilities of marijuana after working for a year in Israel, where
cannabis is more commonly used as a pain medication.

"Until I left for Israel in 2013, I sat around all day writing
[prescriptions for] narcotics . . . " Goldstein told residents at the
open house. In Israel, "patients were preferring and using medical
cannabis."

North Andover residents Dee McKeen (left) and Heather Norwood looked
at renderings and maps.

In Goldstein's vision, recreational marijuana would be the key
product. About two-thirds of the roughly 300,000 plants in a fully
built-out cultivation space would be sold for recreational use.
Goldstein said the profits would fund research on marijuana-based
medicines and indoor growing technology, among other
innovations.

The cultivation space alone would cost $100 million, and the company
projects the facility would eventually employ 1,500 mostly
high-skilled workers. Goldstein has hired a cannabis-grower from the
Netherlands, a businessman with experience in the Colorado pot market,
and former technology executives from the area.

The facility would still need additional approvals from state agencies
and North Andover. As a whole, the town voted against the referendum
permitting recreational marijuana in 2016.

In advance of the Town Meeting vote, Massachusetts Innovation Works
funded an advocacy group, the "Osgood Revitalization Coalition," to
lobby residents. Proponents extol the medical benefits of marijuana
and argue the facility would help reduce the stigma around cannabis.

"I have a debilitating illness, but I've yet to partake in marijuana
for pain because I'm worried about what my customers would think and
what the world would think," said Heather Norwood, a 52-year-old
resident and owner of a local barbershop. "I'm hoping with research
and innovation like they're proposing here, people would get more
educated and understand that a hard-working citizen can actually use
something like this and it's not a negative thing."

But skeptics wonder whether all the talk of medicine is just a smoke
screen to obscure that North Andover would host one of the biggest pot
factories in the world.

"I think that sends a very mixed message to our children," said
Jennifer Watson, a 44-year-old resident with three children under 14.
"They're going to say, 'is it really that bad?'"

Opponents also worry the North Andover facility would be a target of
federal law enforcement, since the Trump administration has reversed
the hands-off marijuana enforcement policy of the Obama era. And the
local skeptics aren't convinced the $5 million annual payments will
ever materialize, noting the state's recreational pot law bars
marijuana businesses from paying communities much more than the actual
costs they impose.

Massachusetts Innovation Works said it does not expect the town to
shoulder any costs, yet it still insists its tentative deal with North
Andover is legal, because it's being negotiated under the state's
earlier medical marijuana law, which allows for larger payments.
Skeptical residents, however, fear the contract could be deemed
invalid by a judge or state regulators.

Watson, for one, said she decided to oppose the project after the open
house because she wasn't convinced the company will make good on the
payments to North Andover.

Others in the marijuana business also question whether the company's
promises are realistic. "It's absurd to make the promise and it's
absurd to believe the promise," said Valerio Romano, an attorney who
represents other marijuana firms seeking state licenses. "Cannabis
isn't the cash cow that people think it is."

Romano said the large offer could prompt other communities to demand
similar payments from marijuana operators, in turn driving up retail
pot prices and sustaining the cheaper illicit market.

The issue has sparked a rancorous debate, dominating, for example, the
discussion on a Facebook group of local mothers, according to Watson.
Norwood said she won't even bring the subject up with her barbershop
clients.

To supporters, the plant is ideally set up for growing marijuana: It
has huge interior spaces, a 50-megawatt substation to power the
numerous lights needed to grow indoors, and private wells so the
company doesn't draw tens of thousands of gallons of water from the
municipal system. The campus is also set apart from neighboring
properties, and company officials said it will be easy to secure
against intrusion.

Goldstein's executives argued that growing marijuana is about the only
thing the property is good for. Large-scale manufacturing has all but
left New England, making it near impossible to find tenants for the
property's largest spaces. And unlike manufacturing, the marijuana
business will certainly get bigger; industry estimates put annual
sales in Massachusetts at a minimum of $1 billion by 2020.

If the North Andover operation is permitted by state and local
authorities for the full 1 million square feet of cultivation space,
Goldstein projects it could supply as much as 10 percent of the
marijuana sold here. Massachusetts Innovation Works also plans to open
three dispensaries of its own, though not in North Andover.

Many residents left the open house Sunday the same way they arrived:
conflicted.

"If it's true that there are all these parts of the cannabis plant
that could potentially be used for different diseases, this could be a
phenomenal opportunity," said Dana Dubois, who previously worked on
clinical trials for a pharmaceutical company. "But I'm hesitant also.
I'm worried about damaging what we have in this wonderful town."

"I'm leaning towards taking the chance," she said, staring across the
vast manufacturing floor. "Hopefully my friends won't disown me."

In Dr. Jeff Goldstein's vision, recreational marijuana would be the
key product grown in the facility.
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MAP posted-by: Matt