Mayor Wants Peabody City Council To Move On Marijuana Ban

PEABODY, MA -- Peabody City Council needs to move quicker to establish a marijuana ban in the city, according to Mayor Ted Bettencourt. In a March 1 letter to the body that will be reviewed by Council at its next meeting on Thursday, Bettencourt called for the city's lawmaking body to schedule a meeting as soon as possible. Bettencourt also clearly advocated banning all recreational marijuana establishments in the city.

"As you know, Massachusetts voters approved the [2016 state referendum legalizing recreational marijuana use] while the Peabody electorate opposed it by a significant margin. It is with great trepidation we must confront recreational use of marijuana," Bettencourt wrote. "Based on our city's results, as well as a myriad of concerns relative to public safety and law enforcement, I strongly urge City Council to vote to ban any and all recreational marijuana operations in Peabody."

In Peabody, 14,973 voters, or 54%, opposed Question 4 in the 2016 election while 12,770 voters, or 46%, supported it. Statewide, the measure passed by a margin of 1,745,394 to 1,511,747. Last year the state legislature passed a "compromise bill" that reworked the law to address concerns in the original language of the law. One of the biggest changes in the compromise bill was giving towns where the measure failed more leeway to ban recreational marijuana sales.

City Council has not taken action on a zoning amendment to pan recreational marijuana facilities, which was first presented in November. Municipalities throughout the state have been trying to finalize local marijuana ordinances before the state finalizes its own rules, which are expected this summer.

By panning recreational pot sales, Peabody would lose its chance to collect a three percent, local sales tax on recreational marijuana sales. And it may prove even more costly: backers of recreational marijuana want to penalize towns and cities and town that ban retail marijuana sales. If the group's proposal works, municipalities with retail marijuana bans would be unable to tap into the pool of money that will come from the state's 17% sales tax on marijuana sales.

Last May, Daniel Fishman, a Beverly resident and ranking member of the Massachusetts Libertarian party, debated the Peabody pot proposal with Bettencourt in op/ed pieces in the Boston Globe. In his piece, Fishman suggested Peabody's retail marijuana ban was a way to protect the city's tax revenue from a proposed medical marijuana dispensary.

"I am going to give city officials the benefit of the doubt and assume it's for moral reasons. I doubt the fact that the city is also considering zoning changes that will allow medical marijuana in the city has anything to do with wanting to keep a legal and cheaper alternative to medical marijuana out of the city," Fishman wrote.

But the state's rules and the original ballot question have been attacked for being implemented too quickly and being too friendly to the recreational marijuana industry at the expense of public safety concerns Bettencourt alluded to in his March 1 letter. Last month a prominent state rep from Wilmington said the state was moving to fast to begin recreational marijuana sales, and those sales were likely to start before the state has a way to test for impaired drivers or clear-cut rules on liability and security for businesses that want to sell marijuana and THC-infused edibles.

"They are moving too fast, and there aren't any checks and balances that will ensure patrons leaving them are sober and able to get home safely like we have available with regular bars," said Rep. James Miceli (D-Wilmington), who represents Wilmington and Tewksbury and sits on the Ways and Means Committee.

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).