Is it OK for local officials to decide for voters whether their communities should allow retail marijuana shops?

PBN Staff

08/19/2022

A WORKER AT Mammoth Inc., one of the state’s licensed cannabis cultivators, tends to the marijuana plants at its Warwick location. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO — ELECTED OFFICIALS in Cranston, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Exeter and Foster all chose not to let local voters decide in November whether to allow the sale or cultivation of recreational marijuana in their communities. That means they will all allow such sales. Voters in 31 communities will get to decide the issue. Above, a worker at Mammoth Inc., one of the state’s licensed cannabis cultivators, tends to the marijuana plants at its Warwick location. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Voters in 31 Rhode Island communities will decide on Nov. 8 whether to allow the sale or cultivation of recreational marijuana in their communities.

Elected officials in five other communities decided not to let voters have their say. Local boards in Cranston, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Exeter and Foster all chose not to put the question on the ballot.

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That means retail sales and cultivation will automatically be allowed in those communities, as will be the case where medical marijuana treatment centers are already allowed in Providence, Warwick and Portsmouth.

Communities that opt out won’t share in the financial benefits, which include a 3% local tax, but will get the spillover effects from neighboring communities that opt in.