PARIS — The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted Monday to pursue a six-month moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries, after an Oxford Hills high school business teacher submitted an application for one.
Patricia Pelletier of 397 Ryerson Hill Road, a business teacher at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School on Route 26, submitted two applications. One is to establish the Green Heart Wellness Center using 3,000 to 7,500 square feet of the Perfect Stitch Embroidery building on James Road to grow and cultivate marijuana for medical use. The road is off Route 26, north of Market Square village.
A second application seeks to establish a dispensary in an 1,800-square-foot storefront in the Cornwall Shopping Center on Route 26. Pelletier’s application says the business would also include a kitchen to provide marijuana “edibles” and a double locked storage closet to store the drug. It would also include Reiki and Pranic healings, massages, a library with information on medical marijuana, and a shop with items such as jewelry, crystals, books and DVDs.
Pelletier’s application says one private investor would fund the proposal up to $15,000, and a second would fund it up to $100,000. Two more would offer between $1,000 and $3,000.
Speaking before the board on Monday, Pelletier said she has been crafting the proposal for the past six weeks and did not believe the dispensary and cultivation would pose a threat to the town.
“I wonder what right we have to take this medicine away from those who desperately need it,” she said. “Having a dispensary in South Paris would make it accessible for the patients who need the medicine to live, so they won’t have to travel an hour or more when they need it.”
If a moratorium ordinance is drafted and approved by voters, no dispensaries can be established and no medical marijuana cultivation can take place in Paris for six months. During the 180 days, the town would determine the most appropriate methods to regulate such dispensaries as well as the cultivation of marijuana for medical uses, according to a proposed ordinance authored by John Maloney of the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments.
Maine voters approved the prescription and limited possession of marijuana for medical purposes in a 1999 vote. In November, voters also approved a question allowing the establishment of licensed dispensaries for medicinal marijuana.
Under this system, dispensaries will be licensed by the Department of Health and Human Services to provide marijuana to patients whose doctors have prescribed the drug for various physical ailments. The state is limiting the number of approved dispensaries in the first year to eight, one for each of the state’s public health districts.
Last month, DHHS opened the application process for dispensaries. Applicants must provide a plan for operation of the dispensary as a nonprofit corporation and pay a $15,000 fee, of which all but $1,000 will be returned if the dispensary is not approved. The deadline for applications is June 25, and the state will award applications on July 9.
Selectman Ted Kurtz said he thought Pelletier’s application was “in front of the curve” due to continuing DHHS hearings on dispensary issues. He suggested that she wait until the department finalized its regulations before submitting an application.
Other selectmen expressed similar opinions, saying the moratorium would offer more time to address concerns related to the establishment of a dispensary.
“What concerns me is that there has been a formal application to the Planning Board to develop a business, and we don’t have any rules that guide the development of that kind of business,” Chairman Raymond Glover said.
“The problem with me is, I know so little about this and I am being asked to make a really important decision here that is going to affect people in my community,” Selectwoman Jean Smart said.
Pelletier said dispensaries are heavily regulated, including provisions for security measures. She also argued that marijuana offers an alternative to addictive painkillers.
Glover said the board should have a better understanding of the issue on June 28, which is the next regularly scheduled selectmen’s meeting. He said the board can decide at that point if they will send the moratorium ordinance to a special town meeting for a public vote.
Town Manager Philip Tarr said that a moratorium decision could still impact the state’s process of choosing dispensary sites if one is made between the filing deadline and the state’s final decision. He said the Planning Board will table any further applications until a decision on the moratorium.
Pelletier said she would also withdraw her applications with the town until that time.
Since the dispensary law was approved, several Maine communities have enacted moratoriums against the establishment of dispensaries.
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