Woke Boston suburb outraged by plans to open legal cannabis dispensary on its ritzy main street

Outraged residents of a Massachusetts town have expressed their fury at a cannabis dispensary that is preparing to open on their quaint main street.

Kirkland Street in Camberville, Cambridge, is home to multiple local businesses, including a coffee shop and ice cream parlor. It also happens to be across the way from Tree House Academy, a local day care on the Somerville border.

Wonderland Dispensary and Delivery owner Steven DeMarco submitted multiple proposals over the years that were shot down by the community who do not want his shop opening in their tree-lined neighborhood.

Now Sunia Trauger, a Harvard researcher, has enacted a petition hoping to bar the shop from their streets. It currently has more than 435 signatures.

She told the Boston Globe: ‘I don’t want to be extreme. I’m very liberal. I’m not against people smoking marijuana in their homes. But everywhere you go now you smell it.’

In the petition, she wrote that members of the liberal community ‘strongly oppose’ the dispensary.

She stated that it would, ‘worsen traffic congestion that is already a problem, fill our green spaces and sidewalks with second-hand pot smoke, increase noise, and create nuisance crimes and more due to the expected large inflow of strangers into our quiet neighborhood.’

After leasing a spot on Kirkland Street for two years, Wonderland Dispensary hopes to open its doors in spite of the community’s complaints

Harvard researcher Sunia Trauger enacted a petition in hopes of barring the shop from opening

Trauger’s petition cites concerns of increased traffic and marijuana smell

Tree House Academy’s director Mara Coelho said she worries the shop will lead patrons to smoke near their children and leave cannabis paraphernalia out for kids to find.

An infamously blue state, Massachusetts voters legalized marijuana almost ten years ago – and Somerville has shown favor for several liberal policies in recent weeks.

In October, they showed support for a popular ballot measure that called for Somerville leaders to end business with companies that ‘sustains Israel’s apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine.’

In September, the city became the latest in the state to launch a curbside organics recycling program, according to Waste Dive.

Last year, the city council discussed providing storage for homeless people in the area and administering a count for used needles abandoned in the city.

But when it comes to dispensaries on their main street, the community is taking a conservative approach.

Coelho said it will ‘directly impact the children, families, and staff who walk through the area daily.’

Another neighbor told The Cambridge Day that the shop was ‘the most unnecessary and irresponsible thing.’

Kirkland Street (pictured) hosts multiple local businesses

The weed shop would open across the street from a daycare and parents and proprietors have taken issue

Daycare workers worry that the shop will expose children to second-hand smoke and marijuana paraphernalia

DeMarco, who is self funding the dispensary, said he takes the community’s concerns very seriously.

He agreed that parents are ‘entirely justified for the kids they look after.’

DeMarco said he plans on installing security cameras outside of his business and to ‘make sure that our eyes and ears are always open.’

Massachusetts regulations state that no cannabis shop can be erected within a 500-foot radius of schools and parks.

However, the city of Cambridge chose to adjust the limit to only 300 feet, since so many parks and schools are packed into the seven mile city.

However, those rules don’t apply to daycares such as Tree House Academy.

Wonderland Dispensary and Delivery does not yet have an opening date.