Freeport Town Council on Tuesday could decide to allow some marijuana businesses in town.
While marijuana is legal in Maine, municipalities must opt-in and individually set rules regulating cannabis, which Freeport has not done.
According to Freeport Town Council Chair John Egan, councilors will discuss whether to allow marijuana cultivation and manufacturing in town, at the recommendation of the ordinance committee. The committee is not recommending the town allow retail sales.
Egan said that while the language does not specify between recreational and medicinal, the potential policies would effectively allow both.
In December, the Portland Press Herald reported that marijuana is Maine’s most valuable crop, reporting that 2020 sales totaled $266.2 million, up from $109.2 million in 2019.
For comparison, in 2019 total sales for potatoes — a crop often associated with Maine — came in at $184.1 million.
If councilors decide to opt-in, there would be an official vote on Aug. 3 to send the rules to the planning board, which would come back to the council for final approval.
“They’ll be at least one if not several public hearings later this fall on the issue,” Egan said. “This isn’t going to take effect real soon, but it is, you know, moving forward.”
The conversation about establishing rules for marijuana in Freeport was reintroduced to the council in March by the owners of the two medical marijuana growing facilities in the town. The council also discussed recreational cultivation in January 2020, however decided to wait unit the state adopted rules and to see how municipalities handle the businesses.
According to a Freeport council document from March, one owner is David Stephenson, who has had a cultivation facility in Freeport since 2017. The facility employs 25 Maine residents, the same document noted.
“I hope to keep my business here, however, I will likely need to relocate to another town … if Freeport does not develop an ordinance to allow licensed adult-use cultivation,” Stephenson said at the March meeting.
Stephenson could not be reached for further comment on Thursday. Neither of the two facilities in town have drawn any official complaints, Egan said.
“We’re trying to be responsive to our business community as well,” Egan added.
Other Midcoast towns that have opted-in and adopted various regulations relating to marijuana include Brunswick and Bath. On Tuesday, Lisbon officials also took a step towards legalizing recreational pot sales and cultivation.
According to the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy website, there are around 80 municipalities in Maine that have opted-in in some form for recreational marijuana. The website points out, however, municipalities are not required to notify the office, so the number could vary.
In June of 2021 there were $6.4 million in retail marijuana sales, which translates to $647,138 in sales tax through around 86,000 transactions.
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