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At last minute, council puts off vote on limiting number of pot shops in Boston

The City Council almost voted today on a zoning change that would prohibit both medical marijuana dispensaries and potential recreational pot shops from being closer than a mile to each other.

But at-large Councilor Michael Flaherty, who has been raising the specter of neighborhood shopping streets turned into pot-based Combat Zones should voters approve recreational marijuana use, agreed to withdraw his request for a vote after it became clear that several councilors didn't want to be rushed into a vote like that. Instead, a council committee chaired by Bill Linehan (South Boston, South End, Chinatown) will schedule a hearing for next week on the proposal.

The issue was not even on the council's agenda today; Flaherty called for a vote at the end of the meeting.

Linehan and Councilor Mark Ciommo (Allston/Brighton) joined Flaherty in backing the use of compasses in determining where dispensaries and pot shops could go. But then another old-guard councilor, Sal LaMattina (North End, East Boston, Charlestown), said he could not in good conscience vote on a limit on pot shops until after voters have their say, possibly this fall.

"We need more information, what's going on in Colorado, I have no idea," LaMattina said, adding he'd want to visit Colorado, or at least talk to municipal officials there, and even then, would want to hear from voters in a referendum.

Ciommo said he's concerned that, already, two medical-marijuana dispensaries are being proposed for Harvard Avenue. Ciommo said geo-limiting dispensaries would improve patient access to marijuana because state regulations limit counties to a total of just five dispensaries and having 40% of them on just one Allston street would do no good for people in other parts of the county.

Ciommo said he supports medical marijuana and that he'd much rather see it sold at local drugstores, but noted that would violate federal law. Boston does not currently have any medical dispensaries, although the Zoning Board last August approved one for 21 Milk St. downtown.

Councilor Josh Zakim (Fenway, Beacon Hill, Mission Hill, Back Bay), said he was worried that the proposal would continue the stigma endured by people who need marijuana for their medical conditions - and that he doesn't want to do anything that would make it harder for them to gain access.

Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) said he would also be concerned about potential revenue ramifications if the measure before voters would let Boston tax pot shops. "Are we limiting the potential revenue that could occur?" he asked.

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Comments

What is the fundamental difference between a medical marijuana dispensary and a recreational shop?

At this point we are really just making people jump thru hoops to get pot legally, when they can already get it pretty much anywhere.

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From what I have read it is mainly a quantity thing. Colorado for example I read, at any one time you may have 1 ounce on you legally. But by having what they are calling a "Red Card" (medical) you may posses more than an ounce.

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Why not just one type of store, and issue the corresponding amount of marijuana based on whether or not you have a card? It just seems to me to be really silly to have two different stores Selling the same product for completely different uses.

It would be like having a liquor store for consumption and one being available by prescription at the pharmacy.

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I'm pretty sure that is what the ballot question proposes, that medical dispensaries become the retail shops. So there would be only one kind of pot store, the one that used to be a dispensary.

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Well, currently, medical marijuana is legal under massachusetts law.

Having a recreational shop is illegal under massachusetts law.

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I'm hoping that a medical dispensaries will one day be covered by health insurance . Its a medicine that is all natural and needed by many for pain relief not a high.
People suffering from cancer, RA, neuropathy chronic pain and are being treated by pain control doctors for treatment should be allowed to have the choice and help from health insurance companies. Being disabled its difficult to pay bills and co-pays
Anyone getting opiates from ER doctors should not be included in a medical dispensary.
They should be going to a recreation dispensary .
Why can't there regulations for both.
I can't smoke pot because of a lung disease eatables are the best for my medical illness.
Lung disease is only one medical illness I have . I would like help with an educated marijuana doctor to find out what will help me.

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Colorado isn't the only state that has legal cannabis, just because pols want a free trip there. Washington, Alaska and DC approved as well and have yet to implode. And many other states (20 +) have been able to continue operating with medical marijuana much smoother than here.
If bars can be next to each other, cannabis shops can as well.

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is the only one with an established recreational market as far as I know. Oregon just opened retail shops in October, and I don't think Alaska is opening any until May.

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But Colorado collected $63m in tax revenue in 2014 at 27.9% tax rate, while Washington collected approximately $21m (state estimate of $805k - $1.75m per month) at a 44% tax rate, which is why everyone looks to Colorado when planning their own future recreational market.

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/041415/which-state-generates-mos...

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It's not like they're going to give anybody a license anyway. Have any medical marijuana dispensaries been allowed to open in the state in the 3 years since the bill was passed?

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A dispensery opened in Brookline Village in the old Brookline Savings Bank building, as reported by our dear adamg.

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I think I goofed - I forgot where I saw the article about the Brookline dispensary - it was on WBUR's Commonhealth blog (which may have been linked from Universalhub?)

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Why have designated, regulated places to dispense drugs at when you can just have armies of people driving around with drugs and money on them. It's like nothing changed but the law!

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n/t

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The people who want to open on Milk Street have actually opened a dispensary in Lowell. I think there's one on the North Shore somewhere as well (Salem?).

The problem is everybody says they're for medical marijuana, but nobody wants one in their neighborhood/town.

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There are already several smoke shops — three? four? more?— on Newbury Street, including two in one block, so it's worth thinking about density at some point. I assume they are pre-emptive, just waiting for legalization, and doing brisk business in paraphernalia in the meantime.

It never occurred to me that nail salons, which I have visited twice in my life, could be replaced by something that could proliferate even more, and which I'd patronize even less. I don't care if people use pot, but I do mind having no choice but to inhale along with them. I think of this when people talk about protecting the right of patients to smoke medical marijuana in condo and apartment buildings. Yes, patients have a right to take their medicine, but the rest of us also have a right not to take it along with them. There are alternatives to smoking and vaping which won't intrude into common airspace and other units.

Some of us get asthma, nausea, and/or headaches from the fumes, so recreational smoking in public and in shared housing should be a legislative issue, as with tobacco. Not that we aren't already dealing with such problems in our apartments, with no protection in many cases. There seems to be no definitive study on to how safe or harmful secondhand pot smoke may be, so we should err on the safety side.

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Cheers to LaMattina for being the cooler head. I'm glad that the council is looking ahead and sees the writing on the wall, but let's not lock the city into any new restrictions until there is some suggestion that they are needed.

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does it really matter how many weed stores are in boston? theres 13 male barber shops in hyde park alone. regulate those

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Social equality espoused by Boston City Council should be a greater advocacy. For example, hard of hearing folks, the Deaf Community should have online access to the Stenographic Record of Public Meetings of Boston City Council.

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God bless legalization of marijuana - now the same people who got rich sending poor black people to jail for weed can get rich selling it! Come on, we already have an existing distribution network. Let those people sell it.

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