The Ellsworth City Council has twice denied a business license to one of Maine’s largest medical cannabis chains after products sold at its Waterville store tested positive for pesticides.
The denial follows a confusing, monthslong application process during which the dispensary’s owner, Frank Berenyi, rebranded his company — MarijuanaVille — to meet the city’s standards for cannabis shops. Ultimately, those efforts proved insufficient.
After being denied an Ellsworth business license in February, Berenyi submitted a new license application under an abbreviated name, M-Ville.
The City Council voted 4-3 to deny that latest application during a tense meeting Monday. Councilors Patrick Shea, Steven O’Halloran and Tabatha White opposed the denial.
Products sold in Waterville at one of the chain’s 12 dispensaries tested positive for “unsafe levels” of pesticides, triggering the first ever patient advisory issued by Maine cannabis regulators in January. One product had more than 190 times the acceptable amount of bifenthrin, an insecticide.
Berenyi wanted to open his dispensary at 71 Main St., where another medical cannabis shop, Boss Lady Genetics, is now operating.
Berenyi said he has already purchased the building, though the sale has not appeared in the Hancock County Registry of Deeds. When pressed on this inconsistency by Councilor Carol Patterson-Martineau, Berenyi suggested the registry sometimes takes a while to record transfers.
Berenyi addressed two of the city’s chief concerns: the cannabis store signage requirements intended to preserve downtown’s family-friendly atmosphere and the unsafe products identified by the state’s patient advisory.
The owner, flanked by an employee and two of his children — whom he identified as co-owners — said the advisory stemmed from a complaint the state received from someone with a personal grudge against him.
Berenyi argued the contaminated products, which were concentrates, were produced by a separate, state-licensed manufacturer and sold to other stores as well, yet MarijuanaVille was the only company to be penalized.
After receiving the advisory, Berenyi said he started testing all of his products — and those from other stores — to ensure his supply was clean and prove that he wasn’t the only company carrying tainted products.
While adult-use cannabis products are subject to stricter testing requirements, there are no state regulations overseeing the testing of medical marijuana products.
Maine is the only state out of more than 30 medical cannabis programs that does not mandate testing, though a bill currently progressing through the Legislature could change that.
The Council ultimately denied the application on a separate land use matter. Medical marijuana shops are only allowed to operate in urban, commercial and industrial zones, according to city ordinance.
Boss Lady Genetics was only permitted to open in the city’s downtown zone because of “some initial confusion or misunderstanding regarding the nature of the business,” according to a February city memo.
Because the store had already been awarded a state license, the city deemed it “grandfathered” and allowed it to operate as a dispensary until its sale.
Berenyi’s attorney, who appeared via Zoom and was later muted for speaking out of turn, argued his client would not have moved forward with the sale had the city informed him that he wouldn’t be able to operate a dispensary there.
Berenyi did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Bangor Daily News.
