Customers purchase recreational marijuana at the Cultivate dispensary on the first day of legal sales in Leicester in 2019. Photo by Steven Senne | Associated Press

The commonwealth has seen a lot in its nearly 400-year history: war, revolution, the world’s most famous tea party, economic decline and rebirth.

Despite all that, there may be nothing to compare to the current crisis, this dire shortage of a vital consumer commodity that is depriving our state’s citizens – or at least its adult population – of fully exercising their natural rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” with that last part about happiness especially pertinent.

I’m not writing about the Bay State’s housing shortage, although housing prices are high as kites, so to speak.

No, I’m talking about something far more important and critical to the very fabric of society: the fact that more than two years after marijuana was legalized, there are only two recreational pot shops open in a state of 6.8 million people, and in Leicester and Northampton at that. Talk about a drive!

You don’t think it’s a crisis? Where have you been? Have you seen the papers lately, watched the news, been stuck in one of the now-routine traffic jams in the little central Massachusetts town of Leicester? There, desperate customers pack Cultivate’s newly opened shop to stock up on their supplies of “Skywalker” – I’ll bet! – “Deja Blue” and “Purple Punch” pot, not to mention “Fire Monster Cookies,” an absolutely essential aid for getting through the workday.

“It was hellish experience in that line,” wrote one customer on the new Leicester pot shop’s website, underscoring the urgency of the situation. “Toes numb, stinging ears, fingers burning cold. Very few people were prepared for the situation,” although they found it was still worth it to “get the good stuff.”

Top Cop Hard at Work

Fortunately, Attorney General Martha Healey is on the case.

Town officialdom in Rochester, Plympton and Natick tried to pull a fast one on Healey, but you won’t catch this former star college basketball player sleeping on the job, not when fate of the state’s newest industry hangs in the balance.

Oh, they were sneaky all right. Rochester and Plympton talked up a storm about needing more planning time before opening their doors to pot shops, but our AG saw right through them. Healey put an end to their ridiculous dithering and rejected their requests for an extension of their marijuana moratoriums.

As for Natick, the town had put some zoning in place for pot businesses, but officials had the gall to post a rather vague public meeting notice about the changes, so no more moratorium for you, either, our AG ruled.

Now, you may ask what the big deal is. Aren’t we being a bit too harsh on the good folks of Natick, Plympton and Rochester?

After all, suburbs and towns don’t like new housing, either, and no one is calling them out for using all sorts of delaying tactics to prevent builders from putting up new homes or affordable apartments that might attract young families – from who knows where – with those costly appendages called children.

In fact, out on I-495, Marlborough’s city councilors just passed a housing moratorium, while not far from Boston, Malden is considering extending its ban on new apartment buildings. Just about every other day, some town or suburb is talking about a ban on new residential construction or attempts to build new affordable housing.

Scott Van Voorhis

A Real Crisis

The suburbs of Greater Boston are expert at using the rules, whether it’s the local zoning code or health regulations, to delay and derail new apartments, homes or condos. In fact, apartments are not even allowed under the zoning codes of most towns.

Yet you don’t see our AG taking towns to court, challenging those bans on new housing and putting the spotlight on those delaying tactics. So why are we picking on towns over trying to do the same thing with pot?

Healey can clearly tell a true crisis from a fake one. When it comes to shortages, housing just can’t compete with pot shops. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of homes, apartments, condos, hotel rooms, dorm rooms – you name it – all across our fine state, but there are just two recreational pot shops. Case closed.

Yes, there is certainly quite a bit of angst out there over just how high – sorry, there I go again, let me rephrase that – just how extreme home prices have become.

The median home price in Massachusetts has reached record heights this year, hitting $374,000 in October, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. It will cost you well more than $1 million to buy the median home in suburbs like Wellesley or Newton, while even one-time middle-class and blue-collar havens of Natick and Watertown have crossed the $600,000 mark.

But that’s why it’s important of focus on first things, first – after all, what better cure for all that housing market anxiety than a nice, little recreation pot store, if not on every corner, than at least in every suburban downtown and small town center?

Here’s a shout-out to our AG for coming around on such a critical issue. Healey actually opposed the legalization of recreational marijuana and even had the nerve to allow Mansfield to extend its ban on pot shops through 2019.

However, faced with “public backlash,” as our state’s largest daily newspaper duly notes, Healey came to her senses and rejected three such moratorium requests since then.

Our AG “is holding towns’ feet to the fire when it comes to zoning,” marijuana industry lobbyist Jim Borghesani told the Globe.

Bravo. If you’re going to hold towns’ feet to the fire over zoning, like our state’s top cop is doing right now, then damn sure it’s for a good cause like our state’s newest industry and not over a silly distraction like housing!

And for all the whiners out there who say they can’t afford to buy a house: Let them eat “space cake.”

Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.