Politics & Government

Warrant Articles on Medical Marijuana May Be Coming to Town Meeting

Warrant articles regarding marijuana dispensaries and public consumption may be on the spring Town Meeting warrant.

 

The fate of medical marijuana in Wellesley may be in the hands of town meeting come the spring. Nothing is on the books yet, but the Board of Selectmen is mulling over how to address the outcome of the Nov. 6 referendum on medical marijuana.

The question of where to zone or place a dispensary--or whether to zone them out of town--and prohibition of marijuana use in public. Officials are expecting to make two separate warrant articles.

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In terms of zoning, the goal would be to restrict where in town a dispensary could be set up. However, setting the zoning so a dispensary cannot be set up could also trigger a provision that would allow people to grow some marijuana for personal use. Wellesley Executive Director Hans Larson explained that, if a dispensary is available to users, they will not be able to grow in town.

However, Larsen commented, "From my perspective, I don’t think it’s a police issue at this point."

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Police Chief Terrence Cunningham commented that enforcing the marijuana bylaw has been difficult: people caught with less than one ounce are not required to give identification for that, and could give a false name. 

"A public consumption bylaw could be the right way to handle this," Cunningham added.

The Selectmen will pick this discussion up at their Jan 2 meeting, in 2013. 

Recently, Wellesley Police reported recently there have been more reports of students with marijuana in the high school than in past years. Police have noticed more openness about marijuana use among teens since it was decriminalized in Massachusetts.

While these are still in early stages of discussion, we want to know: what kinds of restrictions and bylaws would you support, or should there be none? 


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