Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | June 26, 2017 | wbjournal.com Massachusetts said they didn't wait until further action in the State House before making a move themselves. Shrewsbury Town Meeting approved a moratorium through Nov. 15, 2018, and Grafton passed a moratorium it'll reconsider at its fall 2018 Town Meeting. "We're in a limbo until exactly what we know the Legislature is doing," said Northbridge Town Manager Theodore Kozak, whose town passed a moratorium stopping any pot shops from opening before Nov. 30, 2018. Northborough Town Planner Kathryn Joubert said the town, which passed a moratorium at its April Town Meeting, wanted time to find an appropriate district and site plan review process for pot shops as it does with other businesses. "As a planner, I have to look at it like any other kind of land use," she said. Respecting the ballot box Bill Downing, an activist with the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the pro-pot advocacy group doesn't oppose com- munities deciding to put moratoriums in place, but thinks the decision should lie with voters. By letting people vote at the ballot box instead of in front of their neighbors at a town meeting, he said, voters can go with their feel- ings without fear of stigma. "There's often an awful lot more support for our issue when people are able to vote in the privacy of a ballot box," Downing said. When someone has to get up to speak on the issue in front of others, it's different, he added. "You're immediately shunned," Downing said. "Because in public, everyone's a drug warrior. And in pri- vate, people realize the drug war is a sham." No pot shops will open in Massachusetts before July of next year. Even after 54 percent of voters Central Mass. communities are being proactive in shunning recreational marijuana stores, at least for the time being Banning recreational pot V oters statewide approved a new law legalizing recre- ational marijuana last November, but cities and towns aren't waiting for the legalization of pot shops to go into effect before taking action to delay or ban indefinitely any such stores. Two Central Massachusetts towns, Sutton and Westborough, have taken the most drastic steps, choosing to ban – or opt out, in the language of the law – such facilities. Others, including Ashland, Grafton, Holden, Hopkinton, Millbury and Northbridge, have passed moratoriums to give themselves more time to set up zoning and other restric- tions for shops they worry could harm the character of neighborhoods or bring unwanted activity. "We decided that in order to protect the welfare of the community and do what we felt was the most harm, that we would ban it," said Jim Robbins, the Westborough town planner. Westborough was not among the towns with a majority of residents vot- BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal Digital Editor Ashland Approved legalization with 52% of vote Yes Auburn Approved with 51% No Fitchburg Approved with 57% No Grafton Approved with 52% Yes Holden Rejected with 52% Yes Hopkinton Rejected with 52% Yes Leominster Approved with 51% No Marlborough Approved with 53% Yes Millbury Passed with 53% Yes Northborough Rejected with 51% Yes Northbridge Approved with 50.4% Yes Shrewsbury Rejected with 56% Yes Sutton Rejected with 51% Yes Westborough Rejected with 53% Yes Worcester Approved with 55% No The will of the people Residents of five of the 15 largest Central Massachusetts communities voted against recreation marijuana legalization last November, while 10 of those communi- ties have since passed a moratorium or ban on recreational marijuana facilities. Since passed ban Community November ballot result or moratorium Source: Associated Press ing in favor of the new recreational marijuana law at the ballot last fall, and its residents have overwhelmingly approved both a ban at the ballot box and a moratorium at Town Meeting. Both passed by more than 4-to-1 mar- gins, with the dual actions taken as a precaution to make sure pot-shop applicants can't work their way through a permitting process while the state Legislature continues working out a follow-up bill tweaking the law. Town officials in other Central Northbridge Town Manager Theodore Kozak Westborough Town Planner Jim Robbins said the town passed a ban in order to protect the welfare of the community.

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