Connecticut is not Colorado or Washington.
But the Land of Steady Habits is 1 of 20 that allows marijuana to be grown and sold for medical use. Our state is in the midst of choosing growers, and sites for dispensaries.
Westporter David Lipton’s Advanced Grow Labs is among 4 companies recently licensed to produce medical marijuana. The firm is based in West Haven. The other companies are in Portland, Simsbury and Watertown.
So does that leave Westport high and dry?
Last November, the Planning & Zoning Commission imposed a year-long moratorium on dispensaries in Westport. That would give members time to study and understand state rules and statutes.
This Monday (February 3, 6 p.m., Town Hall room 201), the P&Z’s medical marijuana sub-committee holds its 1st public meeting about the issue.
There was virtually no interest — or debate — when the P&Z voted for the moratorium. Local politicians have expressed surprise at the lack of feedback prior to the upcoming meeting too.
Does that mean no one cares if there is a medical marijuana dispensary in Westport? Is everyone delighted that sufferers of a variety of diseases can finally find relief? Or does everyone simply expect the P&Z to say “No way in this town!”
Does it mean this is a non-issue? Or that no one is paying attention?
There are many factors to consider, from possible dispensary locations and tax revenues to the types of businesses we encourage and discourage.
With or without public input, the P&Z subcommittee starts hashing out all those questions on Monday.
Two penny stocks that are trading between 30 and 90 million shares a day, every day, are PHOT and HEMP. Both have to do with marijuana.
Very interesting, because here in Southern AZ, we have a dispensary right in the middle of Oro Valley, a very family oriented, affluent town (not Westport by any means), but one of the “desirable” neighborhoods around Tucson, home of the Udall family, and located right next to a very large Del Webb community which is home to several thousand snowbirds in their 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. The dispensary is packed with seniors driving up in their golf carts (the main mode of transportation in Del Webb communities), presumably making a purchase for those arthritic knees, and then heading over to one of the golf courses with a box of sliced Maui Wowie bread, for an early morning round of golf. Other dispensaries are proposed near many of the other “Senior” or “Adult Living” communities in Southern Arizona. Even the Retirement Village next door has shuttles to the dispensary scheduled twice a week. Living among retired Boomers has its advantages…we can carry concealed without a permit and eat Alice B Toklas brownies legally.
I hope more Westporters show at the next town meeting than the last one. This is a decision with many repuccussions, particularly for those residents with children. States that legalized pot love to discuss the taxes collected, but residents are living the issues having a customer base that isn’t always medically inclined, elderly, or otherwise decent. These centers draw potheads and those that want to sell illegal pot at a lower rate in the parking lot. These are some of the issues that have become reality in other states. Legalized Marijuana (the medical makes it sound so noble) should be voted upon as a state referendum, and not permitted at a town level by a few town residents.
I don’t necessarily agree with s.vespers but I think Westport and CT as a whole should use the experiences of other states to mitigate some of the problems. One way to limit access would be to put in Playhouse Square.
In CO, each city, town, village, municipality, etc., must approve marijuana sales. For example, Denver allows recreational mj sales, but Colorado Springs does not. So, pot sales in Colorado are not state wide; in fact, they’re only in a very few cities, and all drugs, including mj are banned from any university campuses (as they have always been) that depend on govt money. I don’t know about WA, but in CO, pot sales are not widespread, and there isn’t the re-sale in the parking lot issue because it’s more expensive to buy legally, so why would someone buy legally then re-sell at a loss? Pot smuggled up from Mexico is still much cheaper than the legal stuff, just not quality controlled.
In AZ, mmj is so tightly regulated that it’s not very likely there are re-sales here, either, as it’s not that easy to get a mmj card. Like I said earlier, it’s mostly seniors or the chronically and terminally ill that get the cards. There are so few dispensaries, and there is always a doctor, and usually a law enforcement officer on the grounds on sale days (not every day, only limited days and limited hours), that it’s improbable that it’s resold. Again, if anyone’s selling it, they’re selling the illegal stuff they got in Mexico, or what was smuggled in, which is everywhere in the U.S. and very easy to get.
Friday I mentioned a marijuana stock, HEMP. As of 1:30 today, it’s up 82% on 188 million shares! It’s trading at 16 and a half cents. It has six times more volumn than Microsoft’s stock.