FARMINGTON – Selectmen approved an extension of the town’s moratorium on the development of new, retail and medical marijuana businesses at Tuesday night’s meeting. The delay is designed to give the town time to finalize its own ordinance, which could go before voters in March.
At the annual March town meeting, residents voted to ban new retail marijuana businesses and medical marijuana businesses from opening for six months. That moratorium is designed to give town officials time to work on developing local regulations. The finalization of those regulations is again being put on hold, this time for 180 days. That would align with putting the new ordinance before voters at the annual meeting in March 2019.
“We’re just reworking the drafts and fine tuning everything,” Code Enforcement Officer Steve Kaiser told selectmen at a public hearing Tuesday night.
Kaiser said the extension won’t do any damage to the existing, medical marijuana businesses, but will simply add more wait time for those looking to start a new business in town. If the new ordinance is adopted by the town, licenses for marijuana sales would be administered similarly to liquor license: applications would be vetted by the CEO and the Planning Board, but would ultimately go to selectmen for approval.
“Now is a good time to step in and exercise that it has to be fair,” Kaiser said.
A dedication was approved for the composting site at the town’s recycling facility in the name of Dr. Tom Eastler. Dr. Eastler was instrumental in bringing the composting service to life Town Manager Richard Davis noted. The dedication was recommended by colleagues of Dr. Eastler’s.
“It’s been self sustaining and it’s a great educational tool for students,” Davis said.
Chair of the board Joshua Bell suggested the possibility of a sign being made for the dedication using funds from the Special Projects account, though no decisions were made in that regard.
After unanimously voting two weeks ago to endorse a request to the county commissioners to fund the Greater Franklin Development Council out of the county’s Tax Increment Financing account, Executive Director Charlie Woodworth gave the board an update Tuesday, asking that they reiterate that support to commissioners.
The GFDC has been working on several projects based off of community feedback, Woodworth said, including projects such as the Broadband Initiative, workforce development efforts, a community branding initiative and an arts and culture planning project. The endorsement given two weeks ago was for a $40,000 funding request, which Woodworth said would be matched by the GFDC through several grants and fundraising efforts. The budget would allow the two-person staff to focus on getting the above mentioned projects off the ground, rather than on simply keeping their doors open, according to Woodworth.
“Everyone is working so hard to keep their piece of prosperity moving forward. We want to be a catalyst for that,” he said.
Woodworth requested the board reiterate their support to the commissioners, including encouragement to put the GFCD back into the budget this spring. The request was approved unanimously by selectmen.
Come on. How many times are we going to do this? Honor what the people voted for and stop dragging your feet.
Drag, It is legal, get over it. The cities and towns have to option not to have retail weed, the people voted on that too. So if Farmington opts out of the retail weed, they are giving people what they voted on.
I would be very proud to call Farmington my home, if it where banned. Tired of smelling it everywhere!
..Looks like ‘Reefer Madness’ thinking is still around isn’t it ????
William Randolph Hearst started the Anti-Marijuana craze so he could stop
hemp pulp from being used in competing newspapers as he had cornered the market on cheap ‘tree pulp’ paper for the Hearst Publication Empire. Make a movie and the public will believe anything you show them…..Sounds like TV today with Network News.
Ya mon this reefermadness is bonkers.Sit chill smoke a blunt.LOve how you can drink yourself to death at a bar but the reefer somehow is bad.Alcohol the true gateway drug
yup,
Just what we need here. More folks with foggy brains. Numbness is progress for Franklin Cty.
Hmmm who voted? The town selectmen or the people? Honest question I have no idea because I saw nothing about when to show up and vote.
@The Lion Roars – The Eagle Soars:
Industrial Hemp and Smoke-able Marijuana are NOT the same thing, even if they are technically the same plant. Wildly different THC levels being one of the major points of difference.
Personally, I think the State of Maine should be all over Industrial Hemp, given its MANY potentially profitable uses/products, its sustainability, and ability to be grown on very marginal land.
On the other hand, I have no use whatsoever for Marijuana. It MIGHT have some legit medical uses…but until it’s studied more, (with actual scientifically verifiable results and not apocryphal word of mouth), I just can’t rely on it, and it comes with a host of negatives.
It’s legal now, you are correct. That doesn’t make it a good idea. It also doesn’t mean I want it next door.
Medical marijuana has always been primarily just a way to get high legally, make all the excuses for health benefits you want. As people now learn how easy it is to grow your own legally the ‘medical’ industry will fade away. However for those who chose not to grow their own for recreational use it is time to allow retail sales which was approved by voters.
The people spoke, its legal in Maine.
So much wasted tax revenue because feet are being dragged. Get the stores open, use the tax revenue to fund some schools, maybe fix some roads. Let these stores start bringing jobs into this area. Let these stores start buying real estate and paying property tax’s.
Many positive aspects are being over looked just because people have been told “Pot is bad” for so many years. Just like the people that say it has no medical uses, tell that to the family’s who’s kids have been saved from seizures as a result of this plant. So much misinformation from uneducated people.
Any adult should be able to smoke it until their eyeballs bleed. That is their choice. Taxing and creating more bureaucratic entities thinking it will help our society is a shell game.
As a working adult, I don’t chime in much. You say it is legal, on a state level( your right) what about on a federal level, people with CDL, and most companies that we work for Don’t allow any in the system still a Zero tolerance. We chose to work this jobs and understand the situation we are in, but when you have it everywhere, we can’t get away from it and it could result in the loss of our jobs. There are many sides to the whole discussion of pot no one is one the winning side.
Pot can make your eye balls bleed !! ??
Learn something new every day.
But with that new information it is clear it must be heavily taxed to cover the medical costs of bleeding eye balls.
Always consequences…..
That’s a whole lot of smokin’… or if you got so high that you stuck the wrong end of the blunt in and hit your eye.
Ouch. Think Tidepods. Makes me wonder if the packaging will come with safety warnings.
Oh, and that was an exaggerated example, sorry you have no sense of humor. Party on.
Working class, Why does it matter if it is every where? you aren’t going to lose your job just from being around it. You have to actually smoke it or eat it and do so on a regular basis to fail a drug test. You will not fail a drug test from being in the same room with someone smoking it. I have been drug tested a day after being with a bunch of friends that were smoking in a small room and wow guess what, I passed my drug test. All you people that are scared of a plant that you can’t overdose on. Bet all of you that are complaining are the same people that sit at the bar all night or drink a 12 pack of bud every night, and that is way worse then smoking a little pot and killing a bag of chips and going to bed at a decent time and feeling good in the morning. Don’t hate it till you have tried it.
To Wow!!
Aww, Now see there,
you just lost your bet because I don’t sit at any bar or drink any 12pack. And I’ve tried marijuana. So what “same people” ??
My opinion is as good as yours, and I think it has as many negatives as any other drug/plant whatever.
Please donate your lost bet money to a drug rehab (they all started out on….yes it’s true).
Free from denial.
Pretty sure most people start by drinking and then try smoking weed. So in that case wouldn’t the gate way drug be alcohol? oh wait because that has been legal for a while everyone thinks that its not that big of a deal. I have seen way more lives messed up because of alcohol. I wasn’t smacked around by my old man because he smoked weed. But guess what he did a lot of. Drinking that’s right. so maybe you should do a little more research. Just because its legal doesn’t mean you have to do it. By the way I have a lot of friends that have got off opioids with the help of smoking weed.
You want to talk about a “gateway drug”? Let’s talk pharmaceuticals ranging from pain meds to psychiatric meds. How about all the small schoolchildren prescribed Ritalin? Ritalin has a very similar chemical structure to Cocaine, both acting similarly in the brain by blocking dopamine transporters, causing dopamine to build up in the synapses.
I remember back in my high school days, kids buying and selling their prescription Ritalin/Aderall pills. Many of these same kids moved on to Cocaine. Surprise surprise! This is just one example; we could discuss the opioid crisis in Maine, with the potential “gateway drug” being pharmaceutical opioid painkiller prescriptions. I remember my little sister getting prescribed one pharmaceutical after another; each gated the way for the next! Hmmm….
There are ample scientific studies on the medicinal effects of the Cannabis plant, from pain relief to PTSD relief, to seizure disorders and Cancer. My mother in law was able to wean off of all her pharmaceutical prescriptions with the help of Medical Marijuanna. her health has improved dramatically. Of course it is best, as with any treatment, to work with an experienced doctor and be aware of potential side effects. You will find, however, that most pharmaceutical drugs have much worse side effects than herbal medicine in general.
You cannot say you have tried marijuana once and know everything about how it effects people. There are infinite strains. If something makes you “foggy brained” it is clearly not the right strain for you. Many of the most intelligent and productive people I know use Cannabis on a regular basis and they are not foggy in the least. Though I’ve heard that many of the anti-depressant and anti-psychotic pharmaceuticals can make people feel pretty “foggy brained”. I myself am very sensitive to THC, so I stick to non-psychoactive CBD strains, for menstrual cramp relief and external pain relief, etc.
As for Hemp, you can begin educating yourself here:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/8-things-didnt-know-hemp
Wow,
I consider booze more dangerous than weed.
Who cares.
This article isn’t about booze so get over it
People alter their “awareness” for one reason,
They are not satisfied,,, for a million different reasons.
Research all you want,,
Good Luck.
Trillions of dollars are spent marketing destructive habits.
Not a lot of money to be made promoting a sober life,
So we end up here.
Sobriety isn’t even mentioned as an option..
Feed the machines,
Round and round…
Funny, Alcohol used to be a ‘medication’ too.
So was snake juice, claimed beneficial by the slick salesmen who sold it.
This ‘new’ industry is as bad as any other. The plant may be safer to consume, but the people that are manufacturing, processing, and selling it, are as lost in the dollar signs as anyone ever has been. Let alone those playing both the Business and Legislative sides. Consumers are already being taken advantage of, with almost no accountability in the conversations. Actually, it has already been lobbied to have deregulation of this new industry. This town’s own personal representitives for the MOFGA Clean Cannabis program, have been found to be dishonest themselves.
Business minded entrepreneurs care about only one thing, their success, and it is not a tradeoff worth the tax revenues. Alcohol has caused enough problems, and some of the same people who have so indulged in that, they are now the same ones looking to sell this newly ‘legal’ commodity instead. Most often, same as the tobacco users, these people are still indulging in what they claim Cannabis is the safer ‘alternative’ to. It is as though business ethics are non existent in these rural woods. So far as to look downright ridiculous on behalf of rural business. It is all for money, and I wish that was not the truth, but it shows more than in the cities of this Nation.
Maybe if the trade organizations were as busy with drafting rules for accountability, as they are pressing for increased distribution capacity and statewide market share, in Augusta. Maybe then it would build a good foundation, instead of just grabbing the pick axe for the newest gold rush.
What a waste, all around; but that is what comes when a once black market is made ‘legal’, and the once criminals are let loose on the general populace. Some have good intentions, but they were not in the shadows nor can they see what goes on there themselves. Business will forever be exactly that.
Sugar is highly addictive and causes a myriad of health problems when over-indulged. Perhaps we should vote out candy stores. How about violent movies and video games? Shouldn’t these industries be better monitored to not control and dull the minds of our children, glorifying violence? How about money-hungry pharmaceutical industries? Perhaps we should ban hospitals and doctors… I’m being facetious, but my point is there are many potentially damaging industries motivated by financial gain.
The fact that one very sacred, powerful, and useful plant gets such a bad reputation while all these other industries are sanctified, is indicative of an imbalanced society.
This business moratorium is probably appropriate because Marijuana/Hemp need to be gradually introduced into society after so many decades of being demonized.
Gates and ways,,,
You make weed sound so wonderful in every way while you pout about everyone else getting a pass,,,
Well you’re forgetting one big issue with weed,,
It makes your eye balls bleed,,, Remember???
On a serious note,,
Your eyes are important.
The catch is when the monetary value is legitimized, and the entrenchment of influence along with it. Just like has already been proven, business will “control and dull” the rights of those who would otherwise self sustain their own needs.
It is business itself, that has the worse reputation. Along with the politicians who facilitate it’s influence. Very indicative of an imbalanced system.
The people who go to town meetings vote for their selectmen, and the notice about the moratorium was posted at the town office and on the town’s website. Seriously, if you are going to let that “Well I didn’t know.” be your excuse, you don’t need any marijuana.
Hey Head Shaking… alcohol is legal in Maine but not in every town. Each town votes their own laws about it. Same thing here with marijuana sales.