The way the state law legalizing recreational cannabis is written, it’s easier for cities and towns to allow the sale of marijuana in their communities than it is to keep it out.
The only way a municipality can prohibit sales within its borders is by asking voters to reject cannabis sales through a referendum on the November ballot.
Thirty-one cities and towns have taken that route, leaving it up to residents to decide whether cannabis retailers will be allowed to set up shop in their communities, assuming they can obtain a license.
State Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston, one of the champions of legalized recreational marijuana use, admits he was surprised by how few Rhode Island cities and towns chose to automatically put a welcome mat out for recreational cannabis sales in their communities.
Officials in Cranston, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Exeter and Foster decided to allow sales without a community vote. And another three communities – Providence, Warwick and Portsmouth – already host medical cannabis dispensaries, which will be allowed to double as retail outlets when sales become officially legal on Dec. 1.
“What I’ve heard from most [local] officials is that they’ve put it on the ballot more or less as a confirmation of favorability, rather than an expectation that their town would not be interested,” Miller said.
But that’s not the case everywhere.
One of the communities where Miller says the outcome isn’t so clear is Middletown, where officials have made it clear they don’t want recreational cannabis sold regardless of the referendum’s results. And while state law says the decision to reject it ultimately lies with voters, town officials think they’ve found a loophole.
Although town voters will find the cannabis sales question on the local ballot, the Middletown Town Council earlier this year adopted zoning laws intended to prohibit most nonmedical cannabis sales.
Town Councilor Terri Flynn says the ordinance counters the wording on the ballot question, which she says poses an “all-or-nothing” approach to allowing growing and retailing.
The zoning law allows growing and testing cannabis in town but prohibits retail sales. While the town stands to earn thousands of dollars in tax revenue if the ballot measure were to pass, Flynn has concerns that recreational sales pose an “increased risk to our [youths].”
If voters OK recreational sales, Miller doubts that an ordinance can completely ban sales in town. But Middletown officials can probably make it more difficult, he says, especially because they established the zoning restrictions before the Rhode Island Cannabis Act became law in May.
While the law allows communities to “impose reasonable safeguards on the operation of cannabis establishments,” these regulations must not be “unreasonable and impracticable.”
The stakes of the vote go beyond just allowing or prohibiting cannabis sales. Communities that allow it stand to collect a 3% tax on licensed sales within their borders. (The state will collect another 17%.)
But even if communities say “yes” to cannabis shops, there’s no guarantee they will appear in those communities. The state is limited to issuing 33 retail licenses, and nine will go to licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.
While Miller thinks only three or four communities may reject cannabis sales, North Providence Mayor Charles A. Lombardi believes the opposition may be stronger than that.
Lombardi, president of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, opposes recreational sales and thinks that most municipalities wouldn’t have posed the question to voters if they weren’t resistant to the idea.
“If they didn’t care or wanted it, they wouldn’t want to give the taxpayer the opportunity to exercise their rights,” Lombardi said.
Lombardi and Town Council President Dino Autiello say the council as a whole has opposed recreational sales, and the officials are publicly encouraging voters not to pass the measure.
But Autiello, while also opposed to in-town sales, has a different view on posing the question to voters.
“I’m a big proponent of listening to my constituents,” Autiello said. “Any opportunity we have to put an item before voters, I think we should take, especially for something like this.”
If the ballot measure does pass, Lombardi says the town would look at certain regulations such as limiting long business hours and keeping dispensaries out of certain areas in town.
“They’d have to treat it just like a liquor license,” Lombardi said. “It can’t be right next to a school.”
