Salem City Council to Take Marijuana Zoning Vote Thursday

A vote that will be taken at Thursday night's City Council meeting may very well determine whether or not Salem ends up being the recipient of one of Essex county's five medical marijuana dispensary licenses issued by the state's Department of Public Health. 

At their meeting Monday night, members of the council's Committee on Ordinances, Licenses and Legal Affairs voted 3-2 in favor of a motion raised by Ward 3 councillor Todd Siegel calling for the council to consider adding language to the city's current zoning ordinance pertaining to medical dispensaries. 

Siegel also called for a moratorium on the decision until June 2014 in the hopes of giving the council and Planning Board ample time to draft further zoning amendments. 

"We just want to make sure we have our t's crossed and our i's dotted. We don't know what's coming down the road with these things. You speak to different people and you get different answers." Siegel said prior to the vote. "(Having marijuana dispensaries) could be a great thing for the city and it could be a terrible thing for the city, we just don't know yet." 

Siegel, Ward 2 Councillor Michael Sosnowski and Councillor-At-Large Arthur Sargent voted in favor of sending the proposal to the council for a vote. Councillor-at-Large Bill Legault and Ward 7 Councillor Joseph O'Keefe voted against the motion, arguing that the city's current regulations pertaining to medical dispensaries were already adequate.

Monday night's decision means the council as a whole will decide Thursday night whether or not to move forward with scheduling a joint public hearing with the Planning Board aimed at reviewing regulations pertaining to marijuana dispensaries, a process the lawyers representing prospective dispensary operators said was nothing more than a stalling tactic.

Salem Attorney and former city councilor George Atkins, representing the Newburyport-based Alternative Therapies Group Inc., argued that the city's current zoning ordinance already includes a "well-written" definition of what a medical dispensary is and doesn't need any editing.

"You don't need anything further than what you have. What this is is simply a moratorium. It isn't a question of definition, this is an effort to delay for six months this process from taking place," Atkins said, adding, "the simple message is you don't need this new legislation, you already have excellent legislation in place."

Attorney William Quinn, appearing on behalf of Good Chemistry Inc., said the Department of Public Health was moving quickly with the process of awarding licenses and any delay by city officials could cost Salem its shot at a dispensary.

"The principle that they're operating on is that these licenses are going to be granted very early next year or even before that and what will have happened is the city of Salem will have moratoriumed itself out of an opportunity to have a good business providing a service that its voters approved," he said.

Legault said he worried that failing to secure a dispensary license would mean that dozens of city residents with debilitating medical conditions would be forced to grow marijuana of their own at home - something local police would have to regularly monitor.

Thursday night's meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

Salem Patch will keep you posted as additional information is released.