The Board of Selectmen approved host community agreements with one cannabis company and signed off on the start of negotiations with another at their May 26 meeting.

Emerald Turtle Cove, located at 10 Little Brook Rd., will be working toward licenses to cultivate, manufacture, and deliver marijuana products. Owners Janelle and Aaron Goines plan to start with manufacturing and delivery, and add cultivation to their company further down the line.

Selectmen approved Host Community Agreements for all three licenses.

The delivery license was newly created by the Cannabis Control Commission and, for the next three years, made exclusively available to economic empowerment applicants and social equity program participants such as Aaron and Janelle Goines.

The social equity program was designed to benefit disproportionately harmed people, whom the state described as “those most impacted by the War on Drugs, marijuana prohibition, disproportionate arrests and incarceration.” Similarly, the economic empowerment priority application review was available to those whose business practices promote “economic empowerment in disproportionately impacted communities.” Wareham is one of those disproportionately impacted communities.

The Goines’ space on Little Brook Road would not be open to the public.

Ericca and Justin Kennedy, the owners of DB Delivery MA, which would do business as Doobie, are also social equity participants hoping to open a delivery, cultivation, and manufacturing marijuana business. The Kennedys’ company would only be using the manufacturing license to roll marijuana into joints. 

The company would operate out of the building at 3 Tow Rd., which would not be open to the public. 

The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to approve the start of negotiations with the company.