Five cannabis dispensaries and a medical marijuana patient seeking to open a recreational dispensary sued Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker for his decision to order them closed as part of an emergency order aimed at slowing the spread of the new coronavirus.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court and seeks a preliminary injunction that would allow the state's 43 recreational marijuana shops to reopen. Baker classified the dispensaries as "nonessential businesses" and ordered them to close at noon on March 24.
"If it continues, this mandatory closure will cause profound and irreparable damage to the nascent adult-use marijuana industry; will deprive Massachusetts residents of safe access to regulated marijuana; and, will make it very difficult or impossible (e.g.,in Nantucket) for certain medical-marijuana users to obtain marijuana legally," the lawsuit said.