The Zoning and Development Committee met last night and voted to support a moratorium until the end of 2018 on opening any marijuana dispensaries in Newton.
The voters approved the legalization of marijuana in the Nov 2016 election. Initially the state intended to have the new law implemented by 2018 with the first dispensaries opening this past January. The state got bogged down and delayed the schedule to June 2018 instead. Now with the City Council’s vote it will be pushed back to Jan 2019 here in Newton.
The most vocal proponent for the moratorium last night was Lisle Baker who’s main concern was that there would be a significant amount of work required from the city’s Planning Dept, who already have more than a full docket of work particularly with a complete overhaul of the city zoning rules in the works. The Planning Dept estimate was that they’d be able to put together draft legislation by Sept and Councilor Baker’s position was between public hearings, sub-committee meetings and full council meetings at least another few months would likely be required.
The most vocal voice pushing back was Councilor Alison Leary who questioned both the necessity of that slow time line as well as the need for reinventing the wheel when coming up with applicable regulations.
The other related was how or if the moratorium would apply to Garden Remedies, Newton’s existing medical marijuana dispensary. That discussion started with a very interesting statement from Garden Remedies president Dr Karen Munkacy. She issued a very heartfelt apology to the councilors for Garden Remedies misguided PR campaign and said that she had not personally approved it and regretted it deeply and if she could would take it back. I don’t know the back story there but it sounds like a good one.
A lawyer for Garden Remedies said that medical dispensaries are clearly allow to expand to combined recreational/medical use and that by their reading of the applicable law the Zoning Board would not legally be able to apply a moratorium to that conversion. That was later contested by others who testified.
So the other question of the night was whether or not to include Garden Remedies in any proposed moratorium. To be clear, a moratorium would NOT apply to Garden Remedies existing medical marijuana dispensary, only to their possible expansion to a recreational marijuana outlet.
In the end, Councilor Baker put forward a motion for a moratorium until Dec 31 21018 that would include Grden Remedies. The motion passed 4-3, with one abstention. The vote was (I hope I have this right). For the mortatorium: Baker, Danberg, Kalis, and Brousal Galser. Against the moratorium: Leary, Albright, Krintzman. Downs abstaining.
What was a bit fuzzier to this layman was how exactly the Planning and Development Board fits into all of this. They were part of the meeting, asked questions along the way but didn’t take their own final vote by the end of the proceedings. As I understand it, they have a strictly advisory role to the mayor and the rest of the council.
The one thing I’d like to hear from any of the four obstructionist City Councilors is their rationale for believing the retail sale of cannabis should be treated any differently than beer and alcohol. It’s an argument based on ignorance that falls apart quickly in any debate. I think even the proponents of that mindset recognize the weakness of their argument. The fact that they are willing to block a democratic vote over such a specious position tells me there’s more going on than meets the eye. This is really about people who personally oppose social change misusing their positions of power to effectively cancel a democratic vote. It should be met with the same vigorous “Resistance” with which progressives have met Trump.
NOT MY CITY COUNCIL!!!
“The Planning Dept estimate was that they’d be able to put together draft legislation by Sept and Councilor Baker’s position was between public hearings, sub-committee meetings and full council meetings at least another few months would likely be required.”
Why does the Planning Dept think it will take until Sept 2018 to draft legislation? Newton already has regulations in place for the sale of alcohol and regulations in place for the sale, etc. of medical marijuana. These should suffice to sell recreational marijuana. At least for now.
Why do we need more subcommittees?
This vote was disingenuous at best.
I suspect this has a lot more to do with fear and misunderstanding of marijuana than it does with the planning department’s work load.
This is so disappointing. We could be gaining tax dollars from a new flourishing business or letting neighboring communities get a new business and additional taxes.
I know this stance is unpopular here but why the rush to introduce new ways for people to get impaired and risk putting more impaired drivers on the road, introducing young people who may not like alcohol to easier access to drugs? Taxes? That’s a laugh. I suspect any “windfall” the city would receive will be much less than the costs (real and societal) we are choosing to embrace. I’m ok if the local weed smokers need to go to Waltham or Brookline to get their fix… I’m sure those on this board who feel the other way will find many of stats to back them up but I’m not buying it especially when you add in the intangibles. I know the voters have spoken and maybe sales of Doritos and Twinkies will make up the difference.
But then again, we should ban those for being unhealthy… Party on dudes…
The process statewide has been anything but a “rush.”
Just for background, here is the link to the Planning Department memorandum recommending the moratorium. http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/87676
Also, it is clear that Garden Remedies will be able to sell recreational marijuana as well under the paramount state law, though regardless of a moratorium, it will need an amendment to its special permit and a separate host agreement with the community to meet the still evolving state regulatory framework. Reasonable people can differ, which is why we had a divided vote. I was persuaded by the Department’s argument, and my understanding of its other duties, that this made sense, with the understanding, as the Director of Planning acknowledged last night, that this process should move as quickly as possible within that framework.
No change in the Zoning Ordinance can be made without the advice perhaps disregarded of the Planning Board. This is required by state law. Did the Planning Board have a quorum ? (They’ve delayed many votes because of lacks of quorums in the past several years)
Planning and Development Board had a quorum and did vote. Vote was 3-1 in favor of the moratorium.
@Mike Striar – I don’t think so.
My sense is that what’s at work is an inbuilt, intuitive prejudice towards regulation. If presented with the opportunity to regulate something staff and elected officials rarely say “no need”. My sense last night was that nearly everyone took for granted that the city must put in place a new set of specific regulations – because they can.
The most telling moment for me last night was when I found out that their are no explicit zoning rules for liquor stores. They are just one more retail store. I have no idea why they seem to be intent on handling these stores as a special case. Every issue I heard them mention seemed misguided:
Comment – “Unless we pass regulations we don’t know how many shops we could end with” – just like pizza shops we’ll end up with whatever number the citizens of Newton support.
Comment – “The law not only allows retail but manufacture and transport. If we don’t put zoning rules in place we wouldn’t have control over where a manufacturing facility went”. On the off chance that someone wanted to open a manufacturing facility, they would open it wherever they could find suitable manufacturing space in an already zoned business district – just like any other manufacturer or a beer manufacturer.
Comment: “If we don’t zone for this then they would not be required to get a Special Permit” Why should they be required to get a Special Permit.
Bottom line is that Newton city government was woefully unprepared to implement the new law. The result is embarrassed city officials, inconvenienced city residents, and a loss of tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars into city coffers. Pretty disappointing.
I strongly support the decision of the moratorium to delay recreational marijuana entering Newton.
A reminder to participants: our rules do not permit using multiple pysdonyms. Thanks.
2) marijuana cause diseases including heart attack, insomnia etc
@Annie X – Why do you think we need a moratorium? Are you just against the whole idea of recreational marijuana or do you think the city needs more time to enact specific regulations?
I strongly support the decision of the moratorium to delay recreational marijuana entering Newton. These dispensaries will put our families and kids in danger. A recent study released by a leading insurance research group showed an uptick in collision claims in states that have legalized marijuana. The little income from these business could not make up for the cost increase from law enforcement spending due to increased accidents. In addition, similarly to alcohol and tobacco industries, for-profit businesses market and sell marijuana may lead them to market aggressively to heavy pot users, who may have a drug problem or with serious addition. It will potentially bring more crime and drug addicts to our neighborhood. After all, at federal level recreational marijuana usage is still illegal.
I applaud for council chair Lisle Baker and her colleague Vicky Danberg, Kalis, and Brousal Galser vote for the memorandum.
Newton Patch story is here.
I’m very happy that the City made the right choice to delay recreational marijuana entering Newton. Marijuana causes addiction, health issues, illusions if one overdoses, and many harmful consequences. Many families chose to settle in Newton for their children, because of the good school systems. Introducing recreational marijuana will possiblely put our children in the risk of addicting to it. Marijuana will also increase accident, which is a safety concern. Overall, I don’t see introducing marijuana into Newton could do anything good to us, except for such businesses may make some money, with the price that Newton becomes a less desirable place to live.
“Marijuana causes addiction, health issues, illusions if one overdoses, and many harmful consequences. ” Could you please provide scientific sources for those claims? They seem egregious to me, in particular the remark about overdosing.
Focusing on long term prosperity of city of newton is more important than collecting small amount of tax from recreational marijuana stores. I support the moratorium.
Respond to Mary Mary :
PLease visit this site for long lists of marijuana side effects:
http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/marijuana/short-and-long-term-effects.html
I’m overwhelmed by the volume of misunderstanding about cannibis. It is much safer than alcohol. No one has died from a marijuana overdose. Lots of claims about how dangerous it is without any foundation in fact.
Parents who are worried about your teens, are you so naive as to think your teens have no access to it now.
No new regulations are necessary. Treat it the same as liquor stores.
Lisa, that website traffics in misinformation. Marijuana is not addictive. These are the old scare tactics used to convince lawmakers to put marijuana in the same category criminally as heroin. They are lies for the most part.
To claim negative effects a peer reviewed scientific article would be required.
OMG, that website is satire, right, Lisa? Reefer Madness for the new millennium.
OK, now that I got those guffaws out of my system, I’ll wait for you to provide scientific resources. (e.g. journals)
Respond to Marti Bowen and Mary Mary Quite Contrary. Please see Scientific papers below:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/28835305/?i=10&from=marijuana,%20side%20effect
To Whom May thinks marijuana can’t be addicted to and will not cause hallucinations, please read the following article:
Marijuana and Your Health: What 20 Years of Research Reveals
https://www.livescience.com/48171-marijuana-research-health-effects-review.html
For those people who are thinking Newton would win big money because of RM and worried about losing money to other towns because of slow action , just want to let you know – relax, there is no competition! None of the towns surrounding Newton with reputable public school system wants RM in their towns ! Not Wellesley, not Weston, not Needham, not …. You can find it on https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/massachusetts-ballot-measure-4-legalize-marijuana Did it give you a hint? People might value their schools, communities, and kids over money. Actually, people start to realize how their communities adversely affected by 2016 voting and have been working hard to revert it by using REFERENDUM. Here are the links how Sharon people fought back and how Miford banned it by referendum . https://sharoncares.org/
http://www.wcvb.com/article/massachusetts-town-votes-to-ban-recreational-marijuana-shops/12374369
For your knowledge about the effect of marijuana-
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/marijuana/what-are-marijuanas-long-term-effects-brain
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/marijuana-addictive
https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/features/is-marijuana-safe-web#1
More info available on the web.
That article doesn’t exactly support your claims.
Also, how in the world did your comment get so many likes within less than 15 minutes of posting it? I don’t think V14 has enough traffic for that sort of activity.
@Jerry Riley–
After you read the last several postings, do you still believe we’re dealing with a “prejudice toward regulation,” or might there be more to it than that? New commenters like “Lisa,” “Qh,” “Nina C,” “Annie X” suddenly pop up, anxious to erase a legally binding ballot box vote and reinstate prohibition. Not only did they name their like-minded City Councilors, they also repeatedly cleared their computer’s cache to make it appear that they are thumb-tastic.
@Jerry– My apology for misspelling your last name. It’s hard for me to type while my blood is boiling.
I would like to suggest Newton citizens have a vote. Newton has 8 wards and 32 precincts. And we can put recreational marijuana stores in those precincts that have highest rate of supporters who would like to have the stores in their neighborhood.
I support that the City made the right choice to delay recreational marijuana entering Newton. Newton Residents never approve to open marijuana stores in our community.
It is time to protect our neighborhood, our kids, and our families in Newton.
Greg – Take a look at this. I have a feeling you’re being inundated with trolls.
Greg – It seems that someone is calling other Newton citizens trolls, only because they hold different opinions. This is not correct attitude, and needs to be stopped.
Thank you
@Mike Striar – Yes I agree about the sentiments of the folks posting here. My earlier comments were about the motivation of the City Councilors and I still do think their motivation for the moratorium is primarily a good faith (though misguided) belief in the need for additional regulation.
@Lisa, QH, NinaC and AnnieX – I disagree with most of what you’ve said but that’s beside the point. The time for those arguments were back before the Nov 2016 referendum. Like it or not the voters have already reached a clear decision. It’s now the job of our local officials to implement that decision.
If our local officials enact a moratorium because they need some additional time to formulate (what they believe to be ) appropriate regulations, I disagree with that, but they are doing their job. If the local officials enact a moratorium because they (or you) simply don’t want legal marijuana in Newton than that would be a dereliction of their duty, since the voters have spoken clearly on the matter.
Lisa, it’s pretty obvious that there is some foul play involved among the anti-marijuana commenters. When you make asinine claims and your comment magically gets 9 thumbs up in less than ten minutes, it’s apparent that people are clearing their caches to repeatedly like their own comments. There is no way your stance has this much support when you look at how people voted AND this blog simply doesn’t have enough readers for comments to receive that many thumbs up in such a short time period.
@Frank – The citizens of Newton did have a vote and both they, and the citizens across the state voted to legalize commercial recreational marijuana sales.
As for your suggestion of doing precinct-by-precinct commercial zoning via referendum. I look forward to the campaign signs.
“No Nail Salons in Newtonville”
“Waban says Stop the Cobblers”
“One Violin Store is Enough”
Mary Mary Quite Contrary – “trolls”, no I see no evidence of that – i.e. a troll being someone who’s just trying to rile people up. I think the sudden influx of new voices here are just people who voted no on the referendum and are not happy that it is going to be implemented.
Maybe troll wasn’t the right word, but tell me it isn’t fishy that they have all of those thumbs up at a rapid pace. I’ve never seen that happen here before and I come to V14 often.
To Mary Mary, you used so many inappropriate words such as “troll”, “ foul play”, “fishy” to describe the opinions I put forth. Are you actually saying you are jealous about why my voice have so many supporters?
I did share this link to my local friend group, and a lot of these Newton residents share my thoughts. You are free to share your comments among your friends, but you have no right to point finger at me and start to criticize.
I agree with what Frank said, whichever ward/precinct had the most yes vote, should have the marijuana store in their neighborhood. If they want it that badly, they’d welcome it.
This seems like a case of cutting off the nose to spite the face. Not having any dispensaries in the city will have almost no impact on “keeping marijuana out of Newton” as many comments seem to think, people will either take their business to the closest city that does or they’ll just buy through the gray market. What it will impact is our local businesses who are going to loose those sales and as a trickle down lost revenue to the city. That seems awfully short sighted given the anticipated need for an override in the near future.
@Jerry Reilly Anyone who voted yes on Question 4 in November 2016 also voted yes on the following paragraph: “The proposed law would authorize cities and towns to adopt reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and manner of operating marijuana businesses and to limit the number of marijuana establishments in their communities. A city or town could hold a local vote to determine whether to permit the selling of marijuana and marijuana products for consumption on the premises at commercial establishments.”
Newton just joined more than 100 MA cities that “have imposed bans, moratoriums or zoning restrictions on commercial marijuana businesses”. http://www.fox25boston.com/news/milford-debates-keeping-legal-pot-businesses-out/611216043
Did I actually get accused of being jealous??
Speaking for myself, I’m not interested in propaganda about the “benefits” or “menace” of marijuana. The law was voted in, the state had finally (after much heel-dragging) moved towards implementing a process for licensing recreational sales, and I can only conclude that a moratorium is either: 1) further foot-dragging against the inevitability of legal sales or 2) an unconscionable lack of preparedness for something we knew was coming for well over a year.
I don’t think it matters what town voted Yea or nay, but Newton voted for legalization at 55% vs a statewide vote of 54% for. I don’t care about Weston or Wellesley. Some people don’t like pot. Some people don’t like liquor (or nail salons, apparently).
When it comes down to individual businesses wanting to locate in a particular neighborhood, I am sure there will be the same debates that have happened for liquor stores and for Garden Remedies- and there’s no reason there shouldn’t.
But I just don’t see the rationale for the moratorium in the face of the facts, and I haven’t seen a good one from the Council in my opinion.
Newton should have public vote specifically drafting the question as” do you agree to open recreational marijuana store in your ward?” The ward get more yes than no should be considered as potential area for recreational marijuana.
@Luna G– Stop the Luna C! We had this vote in November 2016. The prohibitionists lost!
Mary- Please do not use words like “troll”, “ foul play”, “fishy” to the opions opposed to yours, or suspect the someone who cleared the computer to thumb up. I concerned this matter and I reviewed all comments, I liked the comments I liked, that is it . Please note that every one has freedom of speech, please don’t attack people who have different opinions with you.
@Qh– You want to have a respectful conversation… try not lying! You stated above that marijuana causes heart attacks and insomnia. That’s a lie!
Are we being trolled? No. Brigaded? Certainly looks like it.
The prohibitionists are well aware [and counting on the fact] that if they can put the brakes on implementation here in Massachusetts, Jeff Sessions is waiting in the wings to deal a death blow to the fledgling cannabis industry. That’s why we’re suddenly seeing all these trolls on V-14.
Mike, please read this article here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117399&page=1
I don’t want to talk to person who is doing personal attack!!!
@Mary May,@ Jerry Reilly, @Mike Striat @ Peter Butera @ Doug Haslam @Marti Bowen
If you can reveal which ward you are from and we will be sure to vote for dispensaries location set next to your residence, if It comes to the time for Newton zoning board to determine the location.
Thanks everyone for the updates. I really wanted to get to this meeting but was laid low by the flu. Like many here, I don’t agree with the Committee’s vote but understand where it’s coming from.
This issue hits me personally. I happen to know people all the way back from childhood who now have conditions helped by cannabis. They use the drug to avoid, or at least reduce, regimes of more dangerous pharmaceutical medications.
Would I have a dispensary, delivery service or consumption venue in my back yard? Sure, rather that than a liquor store or bar (though personally I feel any consumption venue has to be coupled with access to a public transportation network). So whatever the City figures out for zoning will be fine by me.
Ward 3. Bring it on.
@Qh– The article you linked to explains that of 3880 studied adults who suffered a heart attack, 124 of them had smoked marijuana within one year of their heart attack. Wow, that’s some pretty damning evidence there.
@Nina C, I’ll pick up that gauntlet. I propose the following just for starters:
– Newton Health Department building in Newton Centre — restore it and keep it intact rather than going through with this hare-brained boutique hotel complex.
– Weeks House. If it can be zoned for a dispensary in the building, it would give seniors easy access.
Further afield, if Newton Community Farm wanted to expand its farm shares I would be fine with that, too.
That’s my starting list. Anyone else got suggestions for where they’d like to see a dispensary in their village?
Thank you, Dulles. Yes, I’d like to see one or two retail cannabis stores in Newton Centre where I’ve lived for about 55 years.
@Nina – Ward 4, go ahead and throw one next to the liquor store at Auburndale square if you want. Couldn’t care less.
New users, same writing style, same grammar issues, same links, same argue-but-not-really-interested-in-debating approach. Brigading, astroturfing, or just one person with a lot of time on their hands and a penchant for ignoring V14’s rules, it’s probably better not to engage in any case.
Back on the original topic: Boo. Booooooooooooo. Completely in line with the pathetic performance of our state legislators and governor on the topic, but that means we should criticize all of them, not use it as an excuse.
TIme to bring back the dislike option. That or at least show who is liking including how many times.
This isn’t a hot button issue for me but the influx of prohabitionist is motivating me to get active and outspoken on this issue
@Frank –
Yes, since Newton did vote for the referendum, any restriction in the number of Newton licenses below that which is specified in the law – i.e. 8 (20% of the city liquor licenses) can only be done by a referendum vote in the city, not by the City Council.
Nina C – Sure, Upper Falls. We definitely could use some additional commercial activity in our sleepy village center.
@Qh–
I’m willing to bet way more than 124 of those same people drank coffee, went to the movies, and wore socks in that year. Lets ban all of those in Newton too.
Dulles – Love the Newton Community Farm shares idea! Part of their seedling sale.
To all of you making similar negative comments in a similar writing style. How would we know that you are a Newton resident/s since you give no indication that you are even really people? You tell commenters what not to write about you while continuing this charade a false and misleading crusade against recreational MJ. That’s plainly not you responsibility.
You challenge commenters to share their ward if they want MJ sold there but still don’t divulge anything about yourself. I live in Ward 2 where we have a medical MJ dispensary that is so low key many residents don’t know it’s there. None of the hyped fears happened as a result of its opening. I’m will happily welcome them and other places, particularly liquor stores, selling MJ for recreational purposes. As a matter of fact, they could replace some liquor stores as far as I’m concerned. Liquor actually does all of the things you are claiming MJ does.
This evening the Newton Upper Falls Area Council reviewed plans from Cypress Tree Management to turn the former Green Tea restaurant, in the CVS plaza at Eliot St and Rt 9 into a medical marijuana dispensary.
It’s as if the former Chinese restaurant could see the future when they named it Green Tea.
And what was the Area Council’s reaction to the proposal?
According to one of the councilor, who happens to live in my house, it seemed to have been well received by the neighborhood council. Cypress Tree were well prepared, gave an excellent presentation, and their plans looked like a significant physical and aesthetic improvement for the property.
No one, neither the councilors or the public in attendance, questioned or objected to the siting of a medical marijuana dispensary on the site. The questions all focused on the nuts and bolts issues like traffic flow, hours of operation, etc.
As a newbie to this topic, just wondering what the preferred method of taking Cannabis is these days?
@simon – I just took a look at Garden Remedies site. It looks like they have a wide variety of smokable, vapes, and edibles. Looks like the answer is whatever you want.