Marijuana sales in your community — no need to rush..

-an important legal analysis with new important information for you, your neighbors and your community leaders..

Your community is going to vote soon on whether or not to allow retail marijuana sales. A new state law allows this — but you may not know that under that new state law, once a community votes “yes” and a marijuana retailer sets up shop. that retailer can continue to sell marijuana in your community forever. If the community finds out this was a bad decision, because of the public health effects or anything else, the community can vote to change its mind — but not for any retailer already in business. They get to continue forever. The statute needs to change. That’s one reason to hold off for now.

Let the legislature fix the statute and then lets vote on it, town by town.

There is another reason to wait. Your town does not have zoning in place now to regulate where your town wants to allow retail sales of marijuana. Do you want retail marijuana sales next to your schools? In residential areas? At night? If you allow retail sales now, before you have zoning in place to govern where and how those sales will be allowed, every retailer will be grandfathered. It will be too late to regulate them. We need to get zoning for marijuana sales in place first, before we vote to allow retail sales.

This analysis of Act 164 is from James Dumont, Esq. and is his legal opinion.

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