Haverhill

Massachusetts cannabis retailer Stem Haverhill took over two popular locations on Salisbury Beach Monday September 17 to host its first-annual Beach Bash, which raised $10,000 for Patriots Helping Vets, a non-profit that provides equipment and services to veterans who benefit from plant medicine.

The event, which drew 300 attendees, was held at the Surfside and the Carousel on Salisbury Beach and featured a DJ and dancing, a boardwalk caricature artist, carousel rides, a glam station, an Italian ice station, and local artists and musicians. 

The Beach Bash was the last in a trio of events held by Stem this year to benefit its non-profit partners.  In August Stem hosted Blast in the Grass, which raised $10,000 for the YWCA Northeastern Massachusetts, and in May Stem hosted Power of Flower, raising $10,000 for the Parabola Center, a non-profit think tank devoted to cannabis policy reform and anti-monopoly regulations.

And next April Stem will host the second Bong and Pong, which will also raise money for local charities.

“Our mission from the beginning has been to provide customers with the best cannabis products on the market while helping worthy charitable organizations bring their vital services to more and more people in the community.  The Beach Bash was a great bash indeed, and I couldn’t be happier with the turnout and the money raised to help an organization that does such important work for our veterans,” Stem owner Caroline Pineau said.

Pineau said the Beach Bash and the two preceding events once again highlighted the cannabis community’s commitment to local and regional assistance and charitable causes.

“This may be a young and evolving industry but it’s certainly proving to be a power when it comes to local philanthropy and charity. That’s a testament not just to the industry, but to the entire cannabis community,” Pineau said.

Since opening in 2020, Stem has raised more than $250,000 for local charities.  Pineau has also made her mark on the Massachusetts cannabis industry by targeting the unfair collection of community impact fees by host communities when those communities have documented no negative impacts from legal cannabis sales.

Stem’s “Beach Bash” raises $10,000 for military veterans assistance groupRead More

HAVERILL, June 29, 2023–The Haverhill, Massachusetts cannabis entrepreneur whose lawsuit has shined a spotlight on the state’s controversial law allowing municipalities to collect “impact fees” from cannabis retailers is accusing her host city of unfair collection of the fees.

Caroline Pineau, owner of Stem Haverhill, recently requested that Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini place the three impact fees paid by Stem since its 2019 opening into an interest-bearing escrow account.  Pineau’s request came after the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune newspaper reported that other cannabis retailers in the city had made one or no payments.

“I find this to be an extraordinary, and indefensible, double standard,” Pineau wrote in her June 26 letter, which requested that her three payments remain in escrow until the city “enacts a consistent and equitable impact fee payment or non-payment policy” applicable to all cannabis businesses.

” I also request that the city refrain from all future impact fee collections until a clear and equitable payment policy is in place.  I find it disturbing that the city is negotiating on a store-by-store basis rather than establishing an across-the-board policy that treats all operators fairly and equally,” Pineau continued.

Stem has made three impact fee payments to the Haverhill, totaling $887,487.91.  The payments were made on May 28, 2021 ($358,942.53), May 31, 2022 ($328,568.35) and June 1, 2023 ($199,977.03).

The June 15 Lawrence Eagle-Tribune story cited city records showing that the city’s other three cannabis retail shops have paid far less than Stem in impact fees.  Full Harvest Moonz has made a single payment of $314,246 and CNA Stores has made a single payment of $176,864.  The third shop, Mello, has made no impact fee payments.

Pineau, who filed suit against Haverhill in 2021 in part to force Haverhill to produce documentation of actual cost impacts to the city by Stem’s cannabis sales, said her efforts have generated significant attention to municipalities collecting impact fees without demonstrating actual impacts.  Since Pineau began her legal battle, several communities have returned the impact fees or have declined to collect any more fees.

“I’m grateful that my legal efforts have benefited many individual operators and the industry in general, but those efforts have come at a great legal cost borne by me alone. To see that other operators in Haverhill are not being forced to pay the fees while I still am discouraging and incredibly unfair,” Pineau said.

Pineau’s suit against Haverhill is still pending. 

Massachusetts cannabis entrepreneur who brought focus to unfair “impact fees” charged by municipalities blasts city for unfair collection practices.Read More