Pubdate: Tue, 11 Sep 2012
Source: Melrose Free Press (MA)
Copyright: 2012 GateHouse Media, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wickedlocal.com/melrose/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3790

WAKEFIELD VOTERS FACE PROPOSED MEDICAL MARIJUANA CENTER

Wakefield - An article asking the town of Wakefield to allow a 
medical marijuana center to open there - if the statewide ballot 
question passes - is slated to appear on the warrant during this 
November's Town Meeting, according to town counsel.

Carl Swanson, who heads the National Organization for Positive 
Medicine, gathered the necessary 10 signatures from Wakefield voters 
for the article to appear on the Town Meeting warrant.

"Under Massachusetts law, any 10 voters can sign a petition to put an 
article on the next Town Meeting warrant," said Town Counsel Town 
Mullen. "Mr. Swanson got more than 10 voters to sign it, and the 
selectmen can't exercise any right to exclude it."

The article question reads: "The Town of Wakefield, MA hereby passes 
a special bylaw requesting that, in the event of the passage of the 
statewide medical marijuana initiative, the Massachusetts Department 
of Public Health issue a registration to the National Organization 
for Positive Medicine to operate a single not-for-profit medical 
marijuana compassion center in the Town of Wakefield, MA."

Swanson initially filed a lawsuit to make sure the article question 
is not buried at the end of the warrant and to seek only a majority 
vote to approve the article, Mullen said. However, Swanson has since 
dismissed the lawsuit. As a result, the article would need a 
two-thirds majority to pass.

If the ballot question passes, Swanson said he plans to attend the 
November Town Meeting, which would likely take place after the state 
election, to answer any questions about the article. If the statewide 
ballot question does not pass, the warrant article would be rendered moot.

"I think the town has been fair," Swanson said about his dealings 
with Wakefield officials. "They are being objective and are doing their job."

When asked about a potential separate bylaw initiative at the 
November Town Meeting to ban a medical marijuana center in Wakefield, 
Mullen said the town's Board of Health and the Board of Selectmen are 
mulling such a possibility as a zoning article. In neighboring 
Reading, a warrant article at its fall Town Meeting to ban medical 
marijuana centers is also being discussed.

Noting Swanson's article would petition the Department of Public 
Health to open a medical marijuana center, Mullen said there would be 
a "legal issue of whether the Department of Public Health's 
definition [of a medical marijuana center] trumps zoning bylaws" if 
both articles pass.

"In that case, I would have to enforce zoning bylaws and ask the town 
not to issue a certificate of occupancy in violation of zoning 
bylaws," Mullen said.

Swanson has a different interpretation of such a scenario. "If they 
were to pass both bylaws, my bylaw is more specific and would 
prevail," Swanson said. "It would prevent anyone else from operating 
a dispensary, but it would prevail as to a question of me opening a 
dispensary."

Swanson has also been eyeing Dracut and Lynnfield for medical 
marijuana centers, but he won't turn his attention to those 
communities until his efforts Wakefield are settled. He believes it 
would be a "mistake to overreact" with any bylaws banning medical 
marijuana centers, whether it's in Wakefield or other communities. He 
noted the ballot question, if it passes, provides for more regulation 
than in California, where marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal.

"The intention is to open a discrete, members-only medical marijuana 
facility," he said. "It's not the same as the California pot shops. 
It's simply intended for the right to dispense marijuana to people 
who are allowed to by the state in a community-friendly environment."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom