SCARBOROUGH — Stores selling medical or recreational pot will be banned under proposed rules recommended by the Town Council’s ordinance committee.
The proposed Marijuana Establishment Licensing Ordinance is now ready for council action following a lengthy look at how to best regulate commercial adult-use recreational and medical marijuana operations.
“The ordinance committee has finished its work and has passed on to the council an ordinance that would provide for the legal operation of cultivation, manufacturing and testing facilities for medical and adult-use marijuana,” Scarborough Assistant Town Manager Larissa Crockett said.
The proposed ordinance would limit marijuana cultivation, manufacturing and testing facilities in some zones in town and ban them from within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare facility. Marijuana businesses must have security measures in place and a way to limit odors. Medical marijuana establishments in existence before 2019 are grandfathered.
Stores selling medical and or recreational products won’t be allowed, however.
“The thought was, let’s hold off on the retail aspect until we see how things go across other parts of the state,” Crockett said.
Crockett said the earliest the proposal could be taken up by the Town Council is Dec. 4, before going before the Planning Board and returning to the council for a final vote.
“We were very deliberate with our work on this because Scarborough was not wild about marijuana at the original marijuana referendum vote,” ordinance committee Chairwoman Jean-Marie Caterina said. “We made the decision as we got the public’s input that we would not (allow) retail medical or adult-use recreational marijuana. We thought that was a good compromise at this point.”
Holding off, at least at this point, she said, would allow the town to “start with everything else and see what the appetite is in a year or two.”
Scarborough was one of the few communities in southern Maine that rejected a 2016 state referendum that legalized recreational marijuana for those 21 and older.
Copy the Story LinkComments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
