On the first day of legal recreational marijuana sales in Massachusetts, Marc Castonguay, a 57-year-old man who lives with disabilities had to cancel his monthly doctor's appointment.
"I couldn't even leave my yard because there were so many cars," Castonguay, who lives on Main Street in Leicester - less than a mile from Cultivate, one of two stores in Massachusetts to begin selling recreational marijuana on Nov. 20, told MassLive.
Kim Miczek, a fellow Main Street resident, complained she has spotted two people "urinating" on her lawn while waiting in line for Cultivate.
"My road has become a long parking lot," she told people gathered in Leicester Town Hall Monday night for an emergency meeting. "I don't like it."
About 100 people gathered for a meeting with Leicester officials and the owners of Cultivate to discuss the new influx of "cannabis tourists" and recreational buyers.
"We're in hell," Castonguay, who walks with a cane because of nerve damage, said. He said and his 22-year-old daughter Sara can barely leave the house because of the traffic snaking down their street toward satellite parking for the dispensary.
During the tense meeting - during which at least one neighbor of the dispensary stormed out in frustration - town officials and Robert Lally, the chief operating officer of Cultivate, tried to assuage concerns.
The novelty will wear off, Police Chief James Hurley said. And the more shops scheduled to open - about a dozen by the end of the year, according to estimates by the Cannabis Control Commission - the less attention will be on Leicester, a small town in Worcester County.
"No one knew this was going to happen," Lally said to the crowd. "We did not know we'd be the first store to be open."
He promised additional parking where needed, and more police officers if necessary. Hurley told the group that Cultivate is paying the police more than $2,000 a day for the traffic detail and additional officers.
"We want to ensure the safety of our customers," Lally said. "And I think, so far, we've done that."
But some saw the upside of the business, which could bring the town $1.25 million in revenue over the next five years, according to Town Administrator David A. Genereux.
John Shocik, another resident of Leicester, said though he did not vote for the ballot initiative that passed in 2016, allowing recreational marijuana sale in the state, he was happy to see the attention - and business - it is bringing the town.
"I didn't vote for it but people did," Shocik said. "We want more businesses ... here there is a business."
After one man, who declined to provide his name, called for Cultivate to shut down, Board of Selectmen member Rick Antanavica protested.
"People complain there is no business, there is no business," he said. "And you want to shut down a business after five days?"
For people living on, or around, Main Street the lines are a serious problem, Dawn Gauthier said. She said she's gotten no response to complaints she's raised with Lally. As she stormed out of the meeting after about an hour she said: "It's making the town money, so people say the hell with it. It's not fair."
She added: "We're living in a fishbowl."
After two hours of discussion, the group agreed to reconvene at the end of December.
"It's going to get better," Genereux said. "It will."