🔒Two new Worcester dispensaries open as industry adapts to new cannabis laws
Located near George's Coney Island restaurant and the Polar Park baseball stadium, Joint Operations celebrated its opening with a ribbon-cutting event on Thursday. PHOTO | ERIC CASEY
Amid major changes in the legal cannabis industry, two new dispensaries have opened their doors in Worcester.After a mid-February soft opening, Joint Operations held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new store at 142 Southbridge St. on Thursday. It is joined by The Corner Emporium, a dispensary at 40 Jackson St., which opened in early March. Both stores focus on recreational consumers, rather than patients in the state’s medical marijuana program. With the new openings, there are now 15 adult-use cannabis retailers in Worcester and over 400 across the state, according to Cannabis Control Commission data.
Joint Operations
Joint Operations is owned by Westborough-based Cannapreneur Partners, according to its application with CCC. The company has additional stores in Gardner, Mendon, and Rowley.“I grew up right on Jefferson Street, literally a five-minute walk down to the Canal District, and it is just a really big deal to me to be a part of this community,” Jose Abarca, general manager of Joint Operations’ Worcester location, said during the Thursday ribbon-cutting ceremony.Joint Operations filled space vacated in 2023 by Florida-based Trulieve in 2023. Trulieve, one of the largest cannabis companies in the country, closed its Worcester and Framingham dispensaries and left the Massachusetts market after the fallout from the 2022 death of Lorna McMurrey, a worker at a cultivation facility it operated in Holyoke. The company said its exit from the state was the result of efforts to improve its financial performance.The site is owned by Worcester landlord and developer Jefferson Mararian, who owns several properties in the area.Joint Operations received a special permit from the Worcester Planning Board in July 2025, with the company represented by Isaac Fleisher of Northampton-based law firm Cable, Fleisher, & Sosebee, according to meeting minutes.
The Corner Emporium
The Corner Emporium has been working to open in the city since 2018, said Joe Johnson, Worcester resident and CEO of the business.Johnson credited the patience of Steven Rothschild, the site’s landlord, with allowing the business to retain the location while it worked to find the right investment team and to navigate the state licensing process.He also credited Joseph Gilmore, program administrator of the state’s Cannabis Social Equity Trust Fund, with helping the company navigate the state’s grant process.The Corner Emporium, Worcester's 14th cannabis retailer, opened its doors in March. PHOTO | ERIC CASEYThe Corner Emporium was established as an economic empowerment priority applicant, a state-led effort to ensure those most impacted by past cannabis prohibition enforcement efforts were allowed access to the legal industry. This allowed the company to receive a $250,000 grant from the trust fund in fiscal 2025, according to state records.The store plans to stand out from the competition through volunteering efforts and donations, Johnson said. Noting the rising cost of other goods like gasoline, he said the goal is to make products as affordable as possible. Traffic at the store has been picking up since it first opened, with the goal of averaging 100 customers per day.Mark Borenstein, an attorney in the Worcester office of Boston-based Prince Lobel, assisted the business with local permitting and licensing, according to an Instagram post from Prince Lobel in March.
Adapting to change
Joint Operations and The Corner Emporium entered the market as cannabis businesses react to several developments at both the local and national levels impacting their operations.In April, an order issued by Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Drug Enforcement Administration moved certain cannabis products, including Food and Drug Administration-approved cannabis products and those produced by state-regulated medical marijuana firms, into Schedule III. The order removed those products from the previous status as Schedule I substances, the same category of drugs such as heroin and LSD. Blanche’s order also initiated an expedited administrative hearing process beginning in June for the broader rescheduling of all cannabis products to Schedule III, a move which could result in tax benefits and more access to banking services for cannabis firms, according to The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.At the state level, Gov. Maura Healey signed a broad overhaul of the state’s cannabis regulatory scheme into law in April. The bill replaced CCC’s five-member commission with a three-member panel. Beyond overhauling the CCC’s governance, the bill implemented reforms to rules governing ownership and allowed for consumers to purchase and possess up to two ounces of cannabis instead of just one ounce.Healey named CCC’s new leaders on Tuesday, with former revenue commissioner Christopher Harding chairing the commission. In addition to regulatory changes at the federal and state level, the industry is facing a potential ballot initiative in November to ban recreational cannabis businesses. While Joint Operations and The Corner Emporium opened this year, other cannabis companies have closed for good due to financial problems, including Atlantic Medicinal Partners in Fitchburg. Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the real estate and banking & finance industries.
