Medical Marijuana Zoning Includes Ban, Limit
The restriction would take effect if the ban is ruled invalid.
Medical marijuana treatment and dispensing facilities, and marijuana cultivation, would be banned from Westborough under part of a planning board zoning amendment.
If the ban is ruled invalid, the proposed bylaw includes language restricting the activities to medical marijuana overlay district(s), created by town meeting, and allowed by special permit from the planning board, according to the draft amendment. An amended use regulation schedule in the proposal shows the activities allowed only in the AE district, after the town meeting vote establishing the overlay.
The planning board's public hearing on the proposal is at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5 in Forbes Municipal Building Room 23. Voters will get the request at the March 16 annual town meeting.
Voters approved the new law at the Nov. 6 statewide election. Westborough residents supported the measure, Question 3 on the ballot, 5,367 to 3,347. The law allows the state Department of Public Health to authorize “no more than 35 treatment centers” in 2013, according to the ballot question.
The planning board’s plan calls for the “complete disallowance” of medical marijuana treatment and dispensing facilities, and marijuana cultivation. It adds definitions of medical marijuana treatment and dispensing facilities, marijuana and marijuana cultivation.
The bylaw intends “to address possible adverse public health and safety consequences related to the passage of Question 3,” the text states.
The proposal also seeks “to minimize any potential adverse impacts on the quality of life in the Town”; “to minimize the adverse impacts of Medical Marijuana Treatment and Dispensing Facilities and Marijuana Cultivation on adjacent properties, residential neighborhoods, schools and other places where children congregate, local historic districts, and other land uses potentially incompatible with said Facilities”; and “to limit the overall number of Medical Marijuana Treatment and Dispensing Facilities and Marijuana Cultivation activity in the Town to what is essential to serve the public necessity.”
Paul Bishop
11:40 am on Tuesday, January 29, 2013
By a two to one margin, the measure- the will of the people- was expressed and the law approved. Patients, with approval by their physician, may obtain and legally use marijuana for the treatment of their serious illnesses. Westborough's Zoning attempts at direct opposition to the will of the people and the laws of the state should be noted by all voters.
All that is clear is that the zoning board is about political posturing for the personal benefit of the members, and not the patients whose voices have finally been heard, or the laws voted in by a two to one margin by the people of the state.
Rodney Johnson
12:14 pm on Tuesday, January 29, 2013
I agree with Paul.
Paul Bishop
4:29 pm on Tuesday, January 29, 2013
One thing is obvious, and that is the council is woefully, and perhaps intentionally, misinformed about the intent and the letter of the law. Quite clearly, the town, or rather a very small handful of people, are trying to override the law.. A law they clearly do not understand.
We have an opportunity right now in Massachusetts to implement a reasonable, sane, and responsible dispensary system for patients. They have fought long and hard, via all the proper channels, to be able to have the ability to treat their horrific illnesses with what in some cases is the only effective medication. Attempting to relegate the patients to second class, 'druggie', looked-down-upon areas by denying them the ability to operate as a reasonable facility in a reasonable location.. for what is a legal medication, like it or not Westborough, is not only against te will of the people, it also victimizes the people the law was written to protect.
shame on Westborough and it's zoning board for victimizing the sick and dying for personal political gain... in direct opposition to the law and the will of the people.