Assistant manager Marion Baxter shows cannabis from the four Connecticut growers at Fine Fettle medical marijuana dispensary in Stamford, Conn., on Monday, Feb. 21, 2022.
STAMFORD ADVOCATE / STAMFORD — Fine Fettle Dispensary plans to hire about 40 more people to work at its location in the city as Connecticut moves closer to allowing recreational marijuana sales.
The state Department of Consumer Protection announced earlier this week that Fine Fettle Stamford, which opened in February, was one of seven medical marijuana dispensaries in Connecticut to finish the steps needed to become a “hybrid” retailer — a business that sells cannabis for both medical and recreational use. Fine Fettle Chief Operating Officer Benjamin Zachs said those steps included receiving an approval from Stamford’s Zoning Board.
The dispensary on Research Drive in the city’s Springdale neighborhood currently has a dozen employees, Zachs said. The company also intends to hire more staff at its locations in Newington and Willimantic, which were included in Tuesday’s DCP announcement as well.
But recreational sales may not happen until early 2023.
Recreational use of marijuana by those 21 and older has been legal in Connecticut since last year. The law stipulates that before “adult use” sales begin, there must be at least 250,000 square feet of grow and manufacturing space approved for recreational production in the state. Connecticut’s four medical marijuana producers all need to go through a conversion process to meet that requirement.
The state DCP announced Tuesday that three of the four producers — Advanced Grow Labs, Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions and Curaleaf — had completed the steps they needed to take to secure a license to grow cannabis for recreational as well as medical use. An application by the fourth producer, Theraplant, is under review.
“Once they are approved, the adult-use market will be able to start 30 days from there,” Zachs said. “So I think (Wednesday) was basically saying, ‘Hey, a lot of these guys have done what they needed to do, and now we’re really close and this is coming.’
“What it really means for us now is we can feel a little bit more comfortable … to start doing all the operational things that we need to be prepared,” he said.
The dispensary will continue to focus on the health benefits of cannabis after recreational sales start.
“Most people don’t come in to buy cannabis just to have the psychoactive effect — just to get high,” he said. “There’s a real use if you want to either be creative or (if you) have anxiety or can’t sleep or are in pain or whatever. And so, because we’ll be this hybrid facility, we’ll have all the sort of positives of a medical operation within … an adult-use legal sale experience.”
In a statement Wednesday, Mayor Caroline Simmons said she thought it was “great that Fine Fettle’s Stamford location is creating jobs and opportunity in our city and throughout the state.”
