Mass. towns open arms
The Associated Press
BOSTON» A growing number of Massachusetts communities are leaving their borders open to commercial marijuana businesses, bucking a wave of bans and moratoriums that followed voter approval of legal recreational pot.
Recent votes in several cities and towns against prohibitions on pot shops have cheered advocates for the nascent cannabis industry, who say it could signal that communities around the state slowly are concluding that potential benefits, including a boost in tax revenues and the driving out of illegal dealers, outweigh the drawbacks of welcoming such businesses to town.
“We got a lot of support from people who don’t use cannabis but might want to someday,” said Scott Winters, a resident of Amesbury who spearheaded opposition to an anti-pot referendum that was defeated by a nearly 2-1 ratio Nov. 7. “From users to nonusers to just folks who want revenue for the city, we had a lot of support.”
Town meetings in Dracut, Marshfield and the Cape Cod town of Brewster also have turned aside bans in recent weeks. The votes in Marshfield and Brewster were notable for having occurred in towns where a majority of residents voted against the legalization question on last November’s state ballot.
Democratic Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who strongly opposed legalization, has nonetheless promised the city will accommodate marijuana stores.
Yet there’s still far from broad acceptance around Massachusetts, which along with Maine were the first eastern U.S. states to legalize recreational weed. Since January, towns have imposed at least 121 bans or other constraints on marijuana-related businesses, which also include growing and processing facilities and testing labs, according to records of the attorney general’s municipal law unit.
The so-called “not in my backyard” dynamic is not unique to Massachusetts, having played out in states that previously legalized recreational marijuana.
In Colorado, more than 60 percent of towns and cities have opted out of hosting pot shops, according to Kevin Bommer, deputy director of the Colorado Municipal League. The additional revenue from marijuana taxes hasn’t necessarily proved a windfall for those with cannabis businesses, he added.
“I don’t think it is the pot of gold that some folks might think it is, because a lot has to go into administration and enforcement,” he said.
But in 2017, the state eclipsed $1 billion in marijuana sales in eight months; in 2016, it took 10 months. Colorado’s marijuana retailers logged more than $1.02 billion in collective medical and recreational sales through August this year, according to The Cannabist’s extrapolations of state tax data released last month. Year-to-date sales were up 21 percent from the first eight months of 2016, when recreational and medical marijuana sales totaled $846.5 million.
In Washington, bans or moratoriums are in place in 80 communities.