Tewksbury Town Meeting OKs Plastic Bag Ban, New Liquor Licenses

TEWKSBURY, MA -- A sparsely-attended special Town Meeting approved six new full liquor license and two beer-and-wine liquor licenses with no discussion Tuesday night. The new liquor license still need to be approved by the state legislature.

The warrant articles that banned retail marijuana sales in Tewksbury drew more discussion, including comments from some residents who noted what they saw as the hypocrisy of banning those establishments while simultaneously increasing the number of restaurants that can serve alcohol.

The town has been considering such the retail marijuana ban to reflect the Tewksbury electorate's opposition 2016 statewide referendum which legalized recreational marijuana. In Tewksbury, just 8,727 voters, or 50.8%, opposed legalized cannabis, while 8,441 voters, or 49.2%, supported the measure.

The other closely-watched item at Tuesday's meeting was the ban on non-reusable, plastic shopping bag ban. The measure passed, making Tewksbury one of more than 75 Massachusetts communities to pass such measures.

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