SAUGUS — The Planning Board recommended that a ban on recreational marijuana shops be considered Monday night.
Resident Mario Scire, who lost his son to addiction last year, was happy with the decision the board made.
“I lost my son last year,” said Scire. “He started out with recreational marijuana and then he went on to bigger and better things, and it took his life. I think there should not (be) any marijuana in this town because it is killing our kids. If you don’t believe it, I go to the cemetery every day and I see a new young person in there almost once a week. It’s terrible and I think we should refrain from having it in our town.”
The Planning Board is required to make a recommendation on the proposal, whether in favor or not, for Town Meeting to consider.
Article 14 asks voters to amend the town’s zoning bylaws to include a definition for marijuana establishment. As proposed, it is defined as “a commercial marijuana cultivator, marijuana testing facility, marijuana product manufacturer, marijuana retailer, or any other type of marijuana-related business.”
The regulations would be amended to prohibit a marijuana establishment in all zoning districts of the town. The article clarifies that a registered medical marijuana dispensary is not considered a marijuana establishment. The prohibition would not apply to the sale, distribution, or cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes.
Planning Board chairman Peter Rossetti said 6,710 Saugus residents voted in favor of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana when it was on the ballot and 7,852 voted against it.
“I just don’t think it’s good for our town,” said Debra Panetta, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen. “I think that we have an opiate problem here.”
Panetta said she stands by her opinion, although she has received a lot of backlash on social media for saying she doesn’t believe recreational marijuana should have a place in Saugus.
“I’m just concerned with the kids today,” said Panetta. “I’m concerned about the people and the safety of our community.”
Resident Mike Fisher argued that people who want to buy marijuana will only leave town to get it and bring it back.
“With it being passed in the state and our neighboring communities that are going to approve it, I doubt that it’s going to affect the amount of marijuana that enters this city from people going to Lynn or Revere, or any other neighboring towns, and there’s going to be a great revenue loss in that,” said Fisher. “It’s not going to make a difference whether there’s more or less marijuana in the town.”
From an economic development standpoint, Tom Traverse argued that a pot shop on Route 1 would be detrimental.
“People come into Saugus and spend tens of millions of dollars,” he said, ticking off the Essex Landing and AvalonBay projects currently being constructed. “To have any kind of recreational marijuana facility right on Route 1 or someplace like that would just be a terrible thing. It would be stepping on them. It would hurt the town from a development standpoint.”
In January 2016, Christopher Edwards, executive director of Alternative Therapies Group, petitioned the Board of Selectmen for a letter stating it was not opposed to the possibility of a medical marijuana dispensary on a parcel of land at the end of Osprey Road. Alternative Therapies Group is a medical marijuana store in Salem.
Several concerned citizens spoke in opposition to the facility, while others shared what they thought it could bring to the town.
The selectmen ultimately denied the request, but clarified that did not mean it would not be revisited in the future. At the time, their main concerns revolved around how things would change with the possibility of the legalization of recreational marijuana, which became legal at the end of that year.
