Council discusses how to proceed regarding pot moratorium

Aug. 14, 2019 | Danielle Eaton
DanielleE@thereminder.com

The Agawam City Council discussed options for addressing the soon-to-expire town moratorium on marajuana sales and distribution during a workshop following its Aug. 5 meeting.
Reminder Publishing photo courtesy of Veemo

AGAWAM – Two years after a temporary ban was placed on recreational marijuana dispensaries in Agawam, the town is once again revisiting the discussion. 

City Council President, Christopher Johnson, called a workshop meeting of the city council on Aug. 5. The purpose of the workshop meeting, which began immediately after the regularly scheduled meeting at 7 p.m., was to discuss the town’s recreational marijuana ordinance. Also in attendance at the meeting was Mayor William Sapelli.

A temporary moratorium was added on Sept. 18, 2017, after the town voted down the legalization of marijuana in what Barbara Bard, administrative assistant to the Agawam City Council, said was a very narrow margin.

Under the moratorium, the growing, selling, distribution, and purchase of marijuana products was not allowed in town. The ban did not apply to medical marijuana facilities. 

However, the moratorium is only in place until Dec. 31, 2019, which means the city council and Sapelli must decide what path the town will take regarding recreational marijuana soon. 

Johnson said, “If we do nothing, by default come Jan. 1, Agawam will allow the sale of recreational marijuana.”

He encouraged city councilors in attendance to not express their personal opinion regarding the sale of recreational marijuana in Agawam, but instead to focus on how the town should proceed.

“I don’t want to hear if you’re for or against it, I want to hear what direction we want to go,” he said.

“The question then was to legalize marijuana in the State of Massachusetts,” Bard told Reminder Publishing. “The question now is different – now that marijuana is legal, do you want to see the sale of recreational marijuana allowed in the Town of Agawam.”

Sapelli spoke to this during the workshop, and said he, too, believed the question was different than it was years ago and, “The fairest way to do this, in my opinion, is to put it on a ballot.”

The city council and Sapelli discussed three different choices during the meeting, which included the council voting no to recreational marijuana sales in Agawam, the council voting yes, or placing the question on the November ballot for the residents to decide.

Including the mayor, a large number of city councilors agreed that a ballot question seemed the fairest way to decide how the town should move forward.

Councilman Robert MaGovern said, “We’re here to represent the people of the town of Agawam, and I think we have to speak loud and clear and find out what the people of Agawam want. I think that it’s mandatory that we put this on the ballot so we can hear from the people and vote accordingly.”

Ultimately, Bard said, the “general consensus was regardless of your personal beliefs and morality issues, the majority believed it should be the residents of Agawam that ultimately decided this.”

Bard said the next step is for the decision to be voted on at the Sept. 16 city council meeting. If it passes during the September meeting, the question will be placed on the ballot in November.

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