The first business license for recreational marijuana was awarded to Sira Naturals last week. The Cannabis Control Commission granted license allows Sira Naturals to cultivate weed for retail sale at its existing Milford facility.
Sira was founded in 2013 as Sage Naturals and operates three medical dispensaries in Cambridge, Somerville and Needham and has a cultivation center at Milford. Sira has been granted a provisional license to allow the CCC to start the inspection process; it might take as long as 60 days to get the final okay to start cultivation.
The provisional license does not permit holders to sell marijuana, but to grow it for recreational use. That means the company can grow cannabis for the recreational market at its existing cultivation facility in Milford.
Mike Dundas, CEO of Sira Naturals, expects the retail license for Cambridge and Somerville to be active by the end of this year. "There are a lot of immediate next steps before we start recreational cultivation -- it's going to be a long process until we see retail marijuana in stores," he said.
Parallelly, the company is also launching an accelerator for cannabis startups and is working on accepting applications beginning July 1st for programs starting in fall. The first cohort will induct startups specializing in product manufacturing, with access to Sira's Milford facility. (e.g. making edibles, other products with cannabis supplied by Sira Naturals).
The accelerator program will accept up to five companies and run for three months. At the end of the stint, the startups have the choice to either branch out to launch their own product or be stocked at Sira stores. Sira will take up to 10% equity.
