Marijuana should go on ballot again
To Our Town Fathers
I would respectfully request and urge you to put on the town ballot the question: Do you want recreational marijuana retail shops and mix use recreational marijuana retail shops in the town of Fairhaven? Yes or no. And let the town residents vote on the matter if this is the best way to prevent marijuana shops on every corner and everywhere in Town.
At the February meeting with Town Counsel Thomas Crotty there was the discussion of recreational marijuana, and the deadline approaching etc. By the end of the meeting it was so confusing and unclear for almost everyone what the process was what needed to be done, a very daunting task to comprehend and understand. Particularly because the law wasn’t specific, evolving with various options and unclear leaving everyone to only interpret the law as they thought. We are now in August and the specifics of the law (hopefully) seem to have become more informative and clear.
The State has given the authority for each town or city the independence to decide if they want to have recreational marijuana retail shops in their communities or not.
To be clear, this has absolutely no effect on the medicinal marijuana and is only related to recreational marijuana retail shops. Now the planning board and Mr. Wayne Hayward an extremely knowledgeable person, will have to figure a zoning area.
Make no mistake, wherever you put the “green” zoning, lawsuits will be filed challenging the zoning law in discrimination against a legal product of where it can be classified and zoned. Pandora’s Box will be opened in the case of it being a legal product for sale like any other legal product such as alcohol, smoke shops, but we can’t sell in those areas. There is also mix use recreational marijuana shops who will sell coffee or drinks and you can order marijuana baked goods while you sit and eat. How will that zoning be tried? You will not be able to prevent this and soon enough it will be available anywhere any goods or products are sold. You will not be able to contain the locations and that is the true reality and once that happens, there will be signs up everywhere.
The argument being made is that the town/state voted for legalizing recreational marijuana…yes they did …that was step one. The recreational use will soon be legal per the ballot vote that is indisputable. BUT the ballot question did not continue on to contain the aspect or wording of saying do you want recreational retail and mix use marijuana retail shops selling in your town. That question is the next logical step to take for each community.
Just because they voted for legalizing marijuana is not a clear signal we want it sold in our town. As you have seen, our surrounding towns of Acushnet, Marion, are grappling with the same issues. Mattapoisett outright voted no, they do not want recreational marijuana retail shops selling in their community (a smart safeguard option on their part). New Bedford has said yes.
This entire process and ramifications are so new and will be long lasting. Why not put the ballot question… if we want the retail sales of recreational marijuana shops in our community? This would certainly be a definitive answer and no longer guessing what would the community want. I am hoping the answer is no, which will then happily tie the hands of the planning board and not have to address this issue. Is there another way to prohibit the retail sales of recreational marijuana shops in town? Town Meeting Members can only vote to limit the several types of retail shops but not prohibit them in Town. Only a ballot questions can outright prohibit the selling of retail shops in town so they do not appear on every street corner
Let the tide of the newness and issues that will arise be borne by a town that voted yes and see how it plays out. You can always change the law down the road, but let’s take this one slowly and methodically one step at a time.
For anyone who doesn’t wish to acknowledge there will be issues and only main focus is the revenue that we can gain from the sales, I can only respond to say that …at what price do you want to sell the integrity of our town for?
Thank you
Doug Brady, Fairhaven
Editor’s Note: Fairhaven voted in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana in a state ballot vote in November, 2016. According to state law, the town can limit the number of facilities to two without another ballot vote. To completely ban shops in town, or to limit them to one, a townwide vote must be held. Towns that voted against the measure in 2016 do not have to have a townwide vote to ban the shops, their other governing bodies (e.g., town meeting) can do so. Fairhaven has a moratorium in place until 12/31/18, to give officials time to draft regulations.
Trump is moving us to dictatorship
Dictatorship definition: a country government or form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator.
Democracy definition: a system of government by the whole population through elected officials.
On paper, we live in a Democracy but in my opinion, there are indicators that trump (notice the small letters) is moving the concept of democracy into the dictatorship column.
When he declares the media “the enemy of the people’ it reminds me of Stalin, Kim Jong-un, Putin and Khrushchev.
He lies, fires anyone that expresses disdain on his policies. He is morally unfit as a husband as a result of his alleged incidents of infidelity.
He has made statements that are caught on tape of using his power to do whatever he wants to women.
He lies..lies..lies.
I find it extremely disappointing that he continues this dysfunction, in so many ways, without any provocation.
I went through the Nixon era where impeachment charges came forth. Nixon resigned before the impeachment proceedings began.
The Nixon charges are minor compared to what is going right now with trump.
When trump first began his effort to “drain the swamp,” I became outraged. I would go “toe to toe” with anyone who chose to verbally interact.
As time went on the reality was that any effort on my part was wasted. Those who support trump continued to support him. The debates only strengthen my beliefs.
It’s comical how he views meetings with foreign leaders like Kim Jong-un and Putin. He takes credit for making North Korea stop building an arsenal of nuclear weapons and Putin for denying any collusion in the presidential election in 2016.
Both of his self claimed “wins” are false.
He has allowed hate groups like the KKK become more visible as a result of his actions in the Charlottesville massacre last year. His statement of “there are good people on both sides” of the conflict really??? KKK has good people???
I went to college in the south and personally experienced the KKK in the late 60’s. There were incidents of hate that lead me to conclude, there are no “good” people in that hate group.
I’ll give you one….A friend from NJ was hitch hiking into town. He was picked up by some KKK members that were dressed casually (no white hoods). As a result of his northern accent, he was taken to a field outside of town where a noose was put around his neck. Nothing happened but there was a fear generated from this incident.
When will the actions of the trump dictatorship end? …not soon I am sad to say because his support group remains loyal and strong.
Steve Bender, Mattapoisett, FHS Class of 1966.
PS…Mexico will not pay for his border wall. He also plans a parade that will coast the taxpayers 92 million similar to Kim Jong’s parades.
•••
Support local journalism, donate to the Neighb News at: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=Y6V5ARRYH689G
Click here to download the entire 8/23/18 issue: 08-23-18 BenoitMusicNight
