Page 21 - BusinessWest November 24, 2021

Holyoke’s mill district has become a promising location for cannabis cultivation for companies like GTI.
“
on the ground floor and also opportunity to grow in these occupations. It’s not like we’ve got 100 people in Holyoke who are cultivators, or 50 people who have strong customer-service experience in retail dispensaries. No one has 10 years of experience in this area. So in Massachusetts, for the job seeker, it’s all
about what they bring to the occupation.”
He does hear questions from people won- dering if the market is too saturated, and has
a quick response. “Northampton has 17 liquor stores. I have yet to hear anyone complain that we have too many liquor stores. To me, this is a legal industry, and it’s the free market, which is why I opposed caps on liquor licenses for years, because they hold back economic devel-
Cannibis
Continued on page 76
There’s opportunity to get in
story on page 22).
“The biggest issue — because it’s not federally
legal — is access to capital,” Cutting said. “It’s a journey getting through the CCC, and if you do make a mistake and don’t dot your I’s and cross your T’s, it gets rejected, and you have to start all over again, and you don’t necessarily go back to the same queue you were in — you may go to the bottom of the pile. And it can be a long, pain- ful process to get back to the top of the pile. And God forbid you make a mistake again.”
It helped, he said, to deal with a city that didn’t limit the number of application approvals. “We sat down with the mayor, and it was the most seamless, easiest process you can ever imagine,
versus other cities that either opted out, or there’s a lottery, or they really capped the number of cul- tivators or retailers they’re allowing.”
In Narkewicz’s eyes, Northampton’s voters approved cannabis — first medical, then recre- ational — at a much higher percentage than the state average, and the city’s leaders took their cue from that.
“We put in place zoning regulations that were not onerous; we’re essentially allowing retail cannabis anywhere we allowed retail, and it
was generally the same for manufacturing,” the mayor said. “And I think we saw a pretty strong response — lots of people wanting to locate here in Northampton.”
ONLINE CANNABIS DEGREE PROGRAMS
Master of Science in
Cannabis Science and Commerce
Micro-Emerging Markets: Cannabis Undergraduate Certificate
With graduate-level and undergraduate certificate options, American International College is preparing entrepreneurs and amateurs alike seeing entry into the rapidly expanding legal cannabis industry. Take the first step today, and make your mark on multi-billion dollar frontier industry.
Apply today at
aic.edu/cannabis
CANNABIS
NOVEMBER 24, 2021 21
BusinessWest