land use

The Planning Board will be conducting a public hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. at Town Offices for the purpose of reviewing two marijuana-related bylaw proposals that will be voted on during a Special Town Meeting on October 20.

The first of the two bylaws proposes to extend the existing recreational marijuana moratorium from November of this year until June 2019, to provide the town with more time to complete public education and outreach, to develop alternative bylaw proposals and to schedule the required town meetings and election.

The second bylaw asks the town to consider enacting a ban on all forms of commercial recreational marijuana, including cultivation, retail sales, manufacturing, and testing. This requires a two-thirds majority to pass. The vote on the proposed full ban will occur first because:

• The results of a town-wide survey last spring indicate that a strong majority favors a full ban.
• In the event the full ban fails to achieve the required two-thirds majority, we will have time to prepare partial ban alternative bylaws for a vote in March.
• A total ban could be reversed by a future vote of Town Meeting.
• Operating under a full ban would provide time to learn from the experience of other communities.

Before voting on the full ban during the October 20 Special Town Meeting, voters will hear a presentation from the Marijuana Study Committee that explains the law and the pros and cons of the various options.

Officials urge interested citizens to attend the public hearing to hear a presentation from the Selectmen’s Marijuana Study Committee. Also on the group’s website is an FAQ document and a link to the video of an April 2018 public forum on the issue of marijuana businesses.

A panel including a doctor, Lincoln Police Chief Kevin Kennedy, and a cannabis industry researcher and consultant discussed some of the issues Lincoln voters will need to think about when deciding whether or not to permit cannabis businesses in town.

Massachusetts legalized recreational marijuana sales in 2016, but individual cities and towns can choose to opt out of marijuana growing, processing, testing or retail businesses. To enact a partial or full ban, a Town Meeting vote to adopt a zoning bylaw amendment restricting or banning such businesses must pass by a two-thirds majority, followed by a simple majority at a town election. Lincoln’s current moratorium on cannabis businesses expires in November.

• Read this FAQ document about marijuana businesses from Lincoln’s Marijuana Study Committee

To be allowed to grow marijuana outdoors, businesses must have the crop fenced and equipped with security cameras, and the plants must be out of view of any public right of way, said Ari Kurtz, a member of the Marijuana Study Committee (MSC) and ]the Agricultural Commission. Growers must undergo background checks and can sell only to licensed dispensaries or product manufacturers. Cannabis can also be grown in secure indoor facilities with windows blacked out.

An advantage to the town of allowing marijuana business stems from the host community agreement provision built into the state law whereby the town gets 3 percent of the business’ gross income.

Marijuana could become a billion-dollar industry in Massachusetts by 2020, according to research reported in the Boston Globe last year, “and people ask, why not keep some of the money in the community through tax dollars?” Kurtz said. “Even small-scale growing can be extremely lucrative.” However, marijuana farming requires a large investment up front in licenses, utilities, and equipment as well as security, he added.

If the town were to permit commercial marijuana growing, it could use zoning rules and the site plan review process to limit what areas of town the plant can be grown, odor mitigation, screening from neighbors, etc. Those measures could restrict other types of marijuana businesses as well.

Panelist Jean Welsh, a Lincoln resident, is a cannabis educator and policy researcher. She said she also uses cannabis to help relieve chronic back pain after many other medical treatments had been ineffective. Medical marijuana does have side effects—”you can get inebriated, but you don’t have to, if you understand how to titrate and deliver the dose,” she said.

Welsh advocated making marijuana more affordable and easier to obtain for medical purposes, “but I have no problem if you want to use my medicine for recreation,” she said. “Some people just want to come home at night and chill with some cannabis instead of a glass of wine… and be able to just walk into a shop and see the products available.”

Legal concerns surrounding marijuana businesses center around security and the fact that marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, Kennedy said. This means that businesses can’t access the banking system and must therefore rely on cash transactions, making them a potential robbery target. There are also concerns about children getting easier access to cannabis, as well as the potential for increased emergency room visits for users who become too intoxicated, he added.

“I would encourage Lincoln to opt out of retail [cannabis] businesses,” said Dr. Eden Evins, an addiction researcher and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. At issue is the potential for easier access by children, especially in newer forms such as oils, vaping and edibles. In adolescents, “repeated marijuana use in adolescents can cause lasting changes in brain structure and function,” she sai

Even though retail sales nationwide are restricted to adults only, its very availability lends an air of social acceptability, Evins said. Tobacco and alcohol are definitely more harmful than marijuana for users of all ages, but for those other substances, “it’s a health issue not just because they’re more dangerous, but because their legal status causes more widespread use.”

Although deaths from marijuana overdose are almost nonexistent, the drug can be addictive, Evins said. Since the 1960s and 1970s, the potency of marijuana has increased significantly, and this has led to increases in admissions to addiction programs for people whose primary complaint is marijuana addiction, she said, adding that 25 to 30 percent of teenagers who use marijuana daily become addicted.

“Everyone in this industry agrees that kids should not have access to cannabis,” Welsh said. Edibles also pose more of a risk because the drug tends to last longer and feel stronger, she added. “If you’re a newbie, don’t do them.”

To give officials a better sense of what the public thinks about marijuana businesses as they mull what rules to propose, Selectman and MSC member James Craig urged residents to return the one-page paper survey that was recently mailed to all homes. There will be a second town forum in September, followed by a Special Town Meeting and special election in October, in addition to the Town Meeting on the school project.

Other area towns are already voting on the issue Winchester has banned all marijuana businesses except testing labs, and Concord has banned all types of businesses. Sudbury will vote on whether to prohibit marijuana manufacture, cultivation or sales on May 7.