Town Wonders What to Do About Marijuana

Town officials have until Dec. 31 to decide whether recreational marijuana shops can be established in Winthrop, and the Town Council has voted to direct the Planning Board to draw up the details for a recreational marijuana shop in regards to buffer zones, signage, etc.

A motion to call for a special election faltered Tuesday night in the debate and went nowhere.

“A fair amount has been set up with state standards,” said Town Manager Austin Faison. The Planning Board would add any local zoning language.

Once done,  the Planning Board would send its work back to the Town Council’s Rules and Ordinance Committee, which would then make a recommendation for the Town Council to vote on. The Town Council would like the ordinance voted on at its Nov. 1 meeting.

“All this is to get started to protect the town, “ said Councilor Phil Boncore.

“If we don’t have zoning in place by Jan. 1 anybody can come in to Winthrop and decide to put a shop in the center,” said Council President Ron Vecchia.

The town voted in a statewide question by 53 percent in 2016 in favor of recreational marijuana. Licenses for marijuana shops are based on the number of liquor licenses in town. Winthrop has six liquor stores and therefore could only have one recreational marijuana shop.

Councilor James Letterie said after the vote for Miller Field people were confused about the vote and the tennis courts.

“I think it would be detrimental to go against the will of the people,” Letterie said. “I think asking for a special election could extend the moratorium.”

He respects the legality of marijuana, but does not want a shop in Winthrop. He shared wording of a ballot question from Cohasset, but did not have wording for a Winthrop ballot question.

Another way to ban the shops is to launch a signature drive for a referendum vote. The would retire obtaining 1,200 signatures to get a question on the ballot through the town council.

“There’s no ballot question in front of us,” said Boncore, “I don’t think we can do this tonight.”

“I don’t think that we should just do this on the fly,” said Councilor Mike Lucerto.

Vecchia agreed.