LYNN — The City Council will discuss bringing pot parlors or stores to the city next month, places where people can legally buy, smoke or consume recreational marijuana.
City Council president Darren Cyr said the state has already approved a law allowing the pot parlors and stores when voters opted to legalize marijuana for recreational use. He said the council has to come up with some type of zoning pertaining to areas they could go in the city before April 1. That would give the city control over where the establishments are located.
“We have no choice,” Cyr said. “Once it goes into effect, every city and town, if you don’t have zoning restrictions, they have the right to go anywhere where you can find a commercial spot … The voters want it. We have to come up with a fair way to have those in the city.”
Cyr said recreational marijuana will be able to be sold in package stores and people will be able to sit in a parlor, which would be similar to a bar setting, and smoke or consume it.
Cyr said the council is required to come up with eight places where recreational marijuana can be sold.
Those places could either be clubs and parlors or stores, similar to package stores for alcohol, which would mean that marijuana could not be smoked or consumed there. The parlors wouldn’t be able to sell alcohol. The minimum age requirement to consume or buy marijuana would be 21, Cyr said.
James Lamanna, city attorney, said there’s a state formula that determines how many recreational marijuana parlors or stores the city is required to have — he said it is about 20 percent by the number of licensed liquor or package stores. Based on 40 of those stores in the city, Lynn would be required to have eight parlors.
Cyr said the two medical marijuana facilities that have already been approved in the city, which are both in Ward 6, on the Lynnway and Western Avenue, would be able to operate as recreational marijuana facilities and would become part of the eight required.
A possible solution could be having a parlor or store each in all of the other wards in the city besides Ward 6, where there would be two and another ward, where there would be none — there are seven wards in the city. The ward councilors would decide where would be the best location in their wards for the establishment.
Cyr said the council would be trying to keep the parlors or stores away from schools and parks, and away from residential areas as much as possible.
He’s opposed to the recreational establishments and feels as though federal laws, where recreational marijuana use is still illegal, should supersede state laws, but added that he’s also a realist. If the city can benefit from it financially, he said officials have to find a way to make it work.
“What we’re worried about is kids getting their hands on it, going in and being able to buy it,” Cyr said. “(We’re) trying to pass something that’s erring with common sense.”
Cyr said the council will discuss the possible zoning change on March 27, which includes a public hearing.
Lamanna said any zoning change needs a two-thirds vote, so eight votes would be required from the council to zone where the parlors or stores could be located. Beginning April 1, the state will begin accepting applications for the establishments, which are lawfully allowed to open July 1.
“This is the council’s opportunity to determine where they could be located,” Lamanna said. “If they do nothing by April 1, the city will absolutely have no say in where they locate.”
Michele Desmarais, the city’s public health director, said city officials are working to ensure that Lynn is following the cannabis regulations set down from the state and cannabis control board. She said the state and cannabis control board have not come out with final regulations so it’s too early to comment further.
“We have no choice because it’s what the city voted on, so we’re trying to comply with what the citizens of Lynn voted on,” Desmarais said. “I think it’s important to consider the safety, to make sure the safety of the residents is taken into consideration, but to ensure that we are abiding by the state regulations that allow a cannabis seller to be able to do business in Lynn.”
Lamanna said the council will also discuss a separate ordinance at the recommendation of the Board of Health, which pertains to whether to allow smoking near schools, public parks and public streets. Right now, he said it’s lawful to smoke marijuana anywhere, but the ordinance would limit it.
The ordinance would probably prohibit smoking in public buildings, public parks, or within a couple hundred feet of a school, Cyr said.
