Marijuana dispensary downtown

A group is looking to site a marijuana dispensary in the downtown, at the former Strata Bank site.  The annual town meeting (ATM) last year only zoned the Industrial Extensive (IE) areas of town for such marijuana dispensaries.  The IE districts are all located around the intersection of Rte 27 and West Street (NB – I originally mistakenly put in the intersection of Rtes 109 & 27 – sorry).

Medical marijuana was a topic covered at the Massachusetts Municipal Association fall meeting for selectmen that I attended last Saturday.  In the status update remarks by the MMA’s executive director, Geoff Beckwith, he said that – –

1. the Massachusetts Municipal Association was instrumental in getting the Board of Selectmen  instead of the Board of Health to be the responsible municipal entity who would weigh in on proposed locations to the state Department of Public Health, and
2. the Board of Selectmen support and/or non-opposition is an important enough factor to the state Department of Public Health, so the Board of Selectmen can use that support and/or non-opposition to achieve concessions from the proponents.
3. the Massachusetts Municipal Association has a point person we can contact for assistance on dealing with with marijuana dispensaries.