Lynn preps for pot shop ordinance battle

LYNN – Lynn is likely to be the site for a proposed medical marijuana dispensary, said a city attorney, but state officials won’t start reviewing siting applications until late summer and fall.”The Department of Public Health is not accepting applications at this time,” stated Public Health spokeswoman Anne Roach.Massachusetts voters in 2012 approved making medical marijuana available to people seeking relief from serious ailments. State officials for the past year have been converting the voter referendum language into regulatory language even as communities, including Lynn, draft local regulations on where dispensaries can locate.Those regulations became a flashpoint in Lynn during the winter when City Council members on January 8 voted 8-2 to ban any dispensaries interested in the city from opening within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds and homes. Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy vetoed the ordinance on Jan. 22, citing local voter approval of the statewide referendum by a two-to-one margin. Councilors overrode the veto on Feb. 12.Assistant City Solicitor James Lamanna said the Lynn ordinance’s strict limitations could confine a proposed marijuana dispensary to Western Avenue’s industrial stretch near the Saugus River.Kennedy on Thursday said the ordinance “effectively prohibits setting up shop anywhere in Lynn.”Ordinance supporters, including Council President Timothy Phelan, said the limitations safeguard Lynn residents from crime, they said, which has cropped up around dispensaries in other states.But Councilor at large Daniel Cahill, who voted against the ordinance with Ward 5 Councilor Brendan Crighton, thinks the ordinance is restrictive enough to face a constitutional challenge from a non-profit seeking to open a marijuana distribution center.”In my opinion, the city would be hard-pressed to defend the current ordinance,” Cahill said.Communities cannot ban the dispensaries, state Attorney General Martha Coakley ruled on March 13, but Coakley also ruled that a temporary moratorium on dispensaries is a reasonable local restriction.Kennedy and city Health Director Maryanne O’Connor said they have been contacted by medical marijuana providers interested in opening a Lynn site. The referendum allows 35 dispensaries to initially register with the state. Not more than five sites can open in each of the state’s counties, including Essex where, Lamanna said, Lynn’s status as a major city will make it an attractive location for someone seeking to open a dispensary.Medical marijuana non-profits can list in their state application the location where they want to open, but Lamanna said city officials may not find out about a marijuana nonprofit’s interest in a local site until the operator files a building permit.At that point Lamanna said city officials – probably Inspectional Service Director Michael Donovan – would have to check the requested site against a Lynn map to determine if the location fit into the ordinance’s restrictions.Cahilll thinks the first round of medical marijuana applications filed with the state will seek to open Massachusetts communities that have not placed local restrictions on dispensary operations.”They are looking at cities and towns, first and foremost, that are welcoming. If they want to build here, they should go to a vacant lot or a Brownfield (environmental contamination reclamation) site,” he said.Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].