The Next High Hurdle for America’s Pot Industry

Healthy Pharms sounds like such an agreeable business, until you read a lawsuit filed by a would-be neighbor on Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. It warns of “pungent odors,” “undesirable visitors,” higher crime rates, and lower property values if the medical marijuana shop opens as planned. Not incidentally, it also points out that Healthy Pharms would operate in flagrant disregard of the federal law that categorizes cannabis as a controlled substance every bit as illegal as heroin or cocaine.

Raj Dhanda, the controlling partner of companies that own the Crimson Galeria and three other buildings near Harvard University, lodged the complaint in September under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act—marking at least the fourth time the statute known as RICO has been used to challenge a marijuana enterprise in states that have legalized the drug.