Local medical cannabis dispensaries are preparing to sell recreational marijuana on Jan. 10 or soon after.

With the state Department of Consumer Protection announcing last week that recreational cannabis sales will begin with some existing medical cannabis dispensaries, The Day spoke with the two closest establishments to New London County, in Montville and Willimantic, about preparation to this point.

The DCP isn’t alone in expecting high traffic for the beginning of recreational sales.

“We increased our vault size. We added registers. We made changes to increase work space so that we could prepare for what could be 3-4 times more orders than what we go through now,” said Ben Zachs, the chief operating officer of Fine Fettle, a multi-state dispensary company with a location in Willimantic. “For the medical patients, our store will be busier. That’s the first reality. But we have a specific medical line. We have a specific medical menu. We have a specific check-in windows, so medical patients will be prioritized in that regard.”

“For adult-use customers, they get a subset of the menu based on their rules and regulations of the state,” Zachs added. “They get a little bit of a smaller menu because some products are not available to adult-use customers that medical patients can buy. We’re asking people to put in a preorder to sort of expedite and be as efficient as we can.”

Zachs said Fine Fettle in Willimantic would begin selling recreational cannabis at 9 a.m. on Jan. 10.

The state DCP named nine medical dispensaries that can cross over and sell recreational cannabis beginning on Jan. 10. Three Fine Fettle locations in the state met the requirements, as well as two The Botanist locations, one of which is in Montville.

“The Botanist team is looking into ways to optimize the entire dispensary experience—adding more point-of-sale terminals, reconfiguring the lobby layout and dispensary flow, increasing the staff and more,” Ben Tinsley, Connecticut General Manager for The Botanist, wrote in an email. “With each entry into a new adult-use market, The Botanist remains committed to providing exceptional patient care and will continue to prioritize patients while maintaining the same high standards of expertise for our recreational consumers. Our team is fortunate to be able to pull best practices from The Botanist locations in neighboring states and will be looking to our success in New Jersey and Massachusetts as we begin adult-use sales in Connecticut.”

Tinsley wrote that it is “understandable” that medical patients could be concerned with the addition of recreational cannabis. The Botanist will open its recreational sales on Jan. 10 or soon after.

“However, The Botanist was born from medical and has carried that commitment to patients since its inception,” Tinsley went on. “We plan to reserve products for patient needs, retain our pharmacist staffing, host dedicated patient-only shopping hours, reserve parking spots for patients, and maintain discount and loyalty options with this ideal in mind.”

Zachs explained that Fine Fettle has been preparing for more than a year-and-a-half to starting selling recreational cannabis. Once Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill legalizing recreational cannabis in July 2021, “We got straight to work,” Zachs said.

“The first thing was to go through the local zoning process to get approved for the conversion from a medical operator to a hybrid operator. All three of our dispensaries were the first three to get that approval,” he said. “We had a number of state requirements. We had to pay a half-a-million-dollar conversion fee, we had to write and prove that we were going to have a great medical preservation plan that ensured our medical patients were treated with the same customer service, respect and personal touch that we’ve built our business on. And then we had to wait for the state and the producers to get through their processes to get to this day.”

Last year, Curaleaf Groton and The Botanist were in a similar position as two local purveyors — owned by larger companies — of medical cannabis trying to determine how to adjust to the new recreational market. But preparations made by Curaleaf Groton appear to be fruitless, as Groton was one of many municipalities not to give zoning approval for the recreational cannabis licensing process.

“Allowing adult-use sales to commence in Connecticut is a historic milestone for both the state and the cannabis industry as a whole,” Tinsley wrote. “This decision not only provides Connecticut with incredible economic opportunities but more importantly, it expands access to even more consumers throughout the state. Now, individuals of all needs and preferences can incorporate quality cannabis products into their lives.”

An earlier estimate from the state had recreational cannabis dispensaries opening in May of 2022, but that was delayed. By comparison, Rhode Island legalized recreational cannabis earlier this year and launched adult-use sales in a roughly six-month period.

Zachs said he was, and yet wasn’t, surprised by the time it took the state to get recreational cannabis off the ground.

“The state wants to do it right, and since day one in cannabis, Connecticut has been conservative with the way the program has been rolled out. It’s a very tight, strict, regulated system,” Zachs said. “But also I’m surprised because there were certain regulatory requirements for the producers to be ready that took longer than I would’ve expected.”

Those producers, which include Curaleaf, Advanced Grow Labs, Theraplant and Connecticut Pharmaceutical solutions, recently met a requirement of 250,000 total square feet of grow and manufacturing space in the state.

The state has granted more than 40 provisional recreational cannabis licenses to different businesses. About 100 businesses are in the midst of the licensing process.

“How ever long it takes, that’s OK,” Zachs added. “You’ve got to do this right because there’s so much stigma around this industry, there’s so much worry around this industry, to do it right is the most important thing.”

s.spinella@theday.com