BRUNSWICK — A Brunswick medical marijuana company is shifting its business to growing pot for recreational use.

Wilshire Madison LLC, which leases a building at 8 Business Parkway in the Brunswick Industrial Park where it grows marijuana, will add a manufacturing space in the building, following planning board approval Tuesday.

Wilshire Madison representative Joseph Marden said his client is shifting from growing medical marijuana to growing marijuana for recreational use. Wilshire Madison will package and ship marijuana to another manufacturer that will extract material from the plant and send it back to Wilshire Madison to package and deliver elsewhere.

There will be no additions to the exterior of the building, Marden said.

No one from the public spoke during a public hearing on the proposal before the planning board approved the application unanimously.

Maine’s first recreational pot retail stores opened Oct. 9, four years after voters approved the legalization of recreational marijuana. Delays were due to legislative rewrites, vetoes, administrative changes and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Attempts to reach Michael DiPersia, owner of Wilshire Madison LLC for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful. Marden said Wednesday further inquiries should go through DiPersia.

DiPersia, representing GJoris LLC, was also granted planning board approval in October 2020 for Brunswick’s first recreational marijuana retail store at 4 Business Parkway pending state and license approval.

According to Brunswick planning director Matt Panfil, the town’s zoning doesn’t distinguish between medical or recreational marijuana growth operations.

Wilshire Madison LLC will need to get licensed for the new manufacturing use through the town clerk’s office, Panfil said.

There is another marijuana growth operation at 43 Bibber Parkway, also in the industrial park, Panfil said.

And most recently, LNI LLC got planning board approval in December 2020 for Brunswick’s second recreational marijuana storefront to be located at 132 Church Road.

Brunswick also has two medical marijuana retail stores: Stone Coast Botanicals in Cook’s Corner, which was grandfathered in when the Brunswick council passed its marijuana ordinance in fall 2018, and Elevated Remedies which opened across on Industrial Parkway in the industrial park over the summer of 2019.

 


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