Woburn Officials Split On Recreational Marijuana Sales

WOBURN, MA -- The Woburn Planning Commission endorsed a City Council proposal to ban the sale of recreational marijuana in the city with a 3-2 vote last week. The proposal, which is being sponsored by City Council Chairman Richard Haggerty and Ward One Alderman Joanne Campbell, comes after the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill in June that gave cities and towns like Woburn -- which opposed last year's ballot initiative that legalized recreational marijuana -- more power to ban retail marijuana sales.

Earlier this year the state legislature revised the referendum that was passed by Massachusetts voters last year. Before the so-called compromise bill passed, such proposals would have gone to a citywide vote. The ballot measure, which passed statewide, narrowly failed in Woburn, with just 10,241, or 50.7%, voters voting 'no" on Question Four. The new bill gives cities where the measure was opposed the choice of passing ordinances through legislative bodies like City Council and doesn;t require them to get approval in a citywide vote.

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"We're respecting [the voters'] will and putting zoning regulations in place to do just that," Haggerty said in presenting his proposed ordinance at the September 13 planning board meeting. The proposal being considered would not affect existing laws regulating medical marijuana use and sales, Haggerty said.

Planning board member Bob Doherty, however, questioned why the question wasn't put directly to voters even if the state law allows City Council to make the decision without voter input. He worried that the city would be leaving the 2% to 3% taxes towns can collect on marijuana sales to other towns.

"Why not put it on the ballot? Now it's not just a simple question of 'Do you want to legalize?'" recreational marijuana, Doherty said. "Now it's a question of 'Do you want it in Woburn?' Even if a slight majority of people voted against it, now if they realize it might be legal and that people are going to go somewhere else if we don't have it here, they may realize we're basically losing tax dollars."

Like Doherty, planing board member Claudia Bolgen voted against the planning board endorsement of the measure and questioned whether the planning board should even be weighing in on the issue since it did not involve land use issues. The planning board's vote serves as a nonbinding recommendation to city council, which will make the final decision on the measure.

"It's really a voter question," Bolgen said. "We're called to look at neighborhood patterns....and all of the physical manifestations [of development]. Are we now also making decisions on whether or not its an ethical and principled to allow marijuana sales in Woburn?"

Other board members worried that allowing marijuana sales in Woburn could make the city a destination for users, especially if neighboring towns moved ahead with similar bans like the one being considered by city council. But Planning Director Tina Cassidy recommended the board consider allowing recreational marijuana sales to eliminate a black market for the drug in Woburn.

"I'm having trouble getting on board with this proposal," Cassidy said. "One of the things I think about when I consider retail sales of marijuana is that it's a way to screw up the supply line. Maybe it's a way to cut off the guy with the other, scarier (drugs) in his pocket out of the picture -- by having it sold in places that are controlled or regulated in some way by the government."

Photo by Dank Depot via Flickr.