DANBURY, Conn. — Mayor Mark Boughton has a message for the medical marijuana industry: Stay out of Danbury.

The city has proposed a zoning change that would ban medical marijuana production and restrict the sale of medical marijuana to pharmacies, even though its production and sale is legal in Connecticut.

The proposal to restrict medical marijuana sales to pharmacies in Danbury amounts to a ban on sales, since no pharmacy is likely to risk selling marijuana as long as pot is classified by the federal government as a controlled substance.

Under the proposal, shops licensed by the state to distribute marijuana to medical patients, such as the Compassionate Care Center of Connecticut dispensary in Bethel, would not be allowed in Danbury.

“If we have to set up a special dispensary for every type of medicine, then there won’t be any need for pharmacies,” Boughton said. “Everybody knows this is an effort to get the camel’s nose under the tent to make marijuana legal for recreational use.”

A medicinal marijuana advocate said Danbury is undermining the 2012 law that Connecticut voters supported.

“The consensus was that a well-regulated medical marijuana program ought to be available to those who qualify,” said Chris Lindsey, a legislative analyst at the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C.

“A community should not hide behind a dubious ordinance as a way to undermine what really is an effective program for people who need it.”

Nonsense, Boughton said. “Let’s be clear: It’s the state that is undermining federal law.”