Three years ago, when five cannabis facilities were proposed for Sandisfield, the industry was projected to pour as much as half a million dollars a year into the Town’s treasury. That kind of windfall seems further and further out of sight.

So far, only one facility is open for business. Daydreamz Estates is selling its organically grown cannabis to shops in Great Barrington, on the. Cape, and in Boston.

A second business, SAMA Productions, expects to complete construction of its growing facility within the next few months and should begin producing cannabis with next spring’s growing season

Meanwhile, with more growing sites opening in the Northeast, the wholesale price of cannabis has experienced “serious fluctuations” – according to one industry insider – moving in a kind of yo-yo fashion. One large facility, Temescal Wellness in North Adams, declared bankruptcy last month after construction issues and, according to The Berkshire Eagle, a “supply glut in the state cannabis market.”

It All Began With Hope

The local industry got under way in May 2019 when Jennifer Pilbin, formerly of Norfolk, Connecticut, stopped at a home on Town Hill Road to explain that she planned to buy adjoining property for a cannabis growing facility. Within a few months, Pilbin instead bought 70-some acres on West Hubbard Road. Her plans never got underway for a variety of reasons, including resistance by a group of adjoining homeowners. Ultimately the Sandisfield Board of Health closed her property because of unsanitary conditions. The acreage is now for sale in two lots, one of 25 acres for $125,000 or together for $299,000. In 2019, at the request of the Select Board, the Planning Board began the complicated process of writing bylaws for the Town in order to regulate the size and scope of cannabis establishments and their impact on neighbors and the Town.

In the meantime, SAMA Production LLC purchased 60 acres near Town Hill Road and Abby Road for a cannabis-growing site. Because of Covid regulations, SAMA’s first outreach meeting in December 2020 was held in a tent outside Firehouse #2, which would have been fine had it not been during a snowstorm with the temperature inside the tent near freezing. One Select Board member estimated revenue to the Town as high as $350,000, about as much, he figured, as the Town would receive in real estate taxes for 110 new homes. Significant opposition to the plan grew rapidly, with some residents forming a group called Sandisfield Neighbors for a Pot-Free Forest.

As for the Town’s Cannabis Bylaw, after failing to pass a 2/3 vote at Town Meeting in 2021, the redrafted and amended bylaw was proposed again at the 2022 Town Meeting and passed with only three votes against it.

Thus, in April 2022, five proposals were in the works. Along with Daydreamz, SAMA, and Pilbin, two other applicants expressed interest. Berkshire Mountain Cannabis proposed a site on North Beech Plain Road and a group called Green Patriot asked for an outreach meeting, although its planned site was unknown.

Of the five, Daydreamz was nearly in business and SAMA, having relocated to a site south of New Boston, was busy clearing rocks and trees and levelling its new property. Soon, BMC shifted its plans to the former Villa Mia site and Green Patriot withdrew entirely.

Daydreamz Estates

Daydreamz is surviving on grit and determination. Owner/operator Phillip Blume worked initially with his company partners and hired help. He now works mostly alone. Starting in 2019, Daydreamz cleared some 50,000 square feet out of a pine forest on the steep hillside above Town Hall to create windrows of growing beds by hauling topsoil and mixing it with Sandisfield earth. The few dozen rows now nurture about 700 cannabis plants which are protected by a state-required chain-link fence, with access by finger-print ID.

At first Blume concentrated on selling dried cannabis, but he is considering working with distributors who make other products, like THC extracts, gummies's and a product called diamonds.

Initially planning to be a cannabis entrepreneur, Blume said, “Now I’m a farmer. I’m trying to do my best to get good product, clean and healthy for people to use. We’re one of the few outdoor organic cannabis farms in Massachusetts.”

His partner, Hanna O’Brien, pitches in with the work when she’s not at her newly opened second-hand shop in New Hartford. As well as cannabis, Phillip and Hanna cultivate about twenty beehives and a small flock of chickens, which are guarded by a wise black dog that shies away from bears and foxes but otherwise is a good watchdog.

“We want to make life up here sustainable for us. I’d like to build greenhouses to grow vegetables, microgreens, a full circle of vegetables. Make our place into a kind of homestead.”

SAMA on Rt. 8

We stopped at SAMA Productions south of New Boston and met John Heck, a SAMA principal, and two of his team members, Conor Ford and Amy Goss. They were on-site to greet half a dozen inspectors from the Massachusetts Cannabis Commission who were on an official tour of the facility.

To avoid further conflict on Town Hill Road, SAMA moved to this 14-acre site in 2021 at the suggestion of Brian O’Rourke, a Selectman at the time. This site is on the east side of Rt. 8, two miles north of the Connecticut border.

The property has been cleared and fenced, with six greenhouses and a 5,000 square-foot warehouse for drying and processing almost ready to go. The facility seems to only need a piece here and a piece there, and it could be in operation.

Heck said that various delays, including difficult to obtain electrical equipment and other issues, had caused their project to be about a year behind schedule. He regretted that they had missed this year’s growing season. “Next spring” he said, “we’ll be ready to rock and roll.”

BMC at Villa Mia

The building and grounds at the former site of the restaurant Villa Mia were bought in 2021 by Berkshire Mountain Cannabis, after abandoning its project on North Beech Plain Road. BMC planned to turn Villa Mia into a retail store for cannabis and related products, announcing its intentions at an outreach meeting. The group’s attorney suggested the store could generate an estimated windfall of $300,000 in tax revenue. BMC pointed out that Villa Mia would need an interior rebuild at an estimated cost of $700,000. The proposal was approved and seemed ready to move into gear.

Three years later, however, the building remains unchanged and empty, though the For Sale sign is gone. BMC does not respond to phone calls or emails requesting information on its plans for the former Villa Mia.