Newtown prohibited the legal weed trade the same day it was decriminalized in CT. Here’s why.

NEWTOWN – Leaders here were so concerned about the unintended consequences of the legal marijuana trafficking in Connecticut that they saw no disadvantage in being the first in the Danbury area to ban cannabis operations.

At the suggestion of First Selectman Dan Rosenthal, who said, “The prudent approach is to ban cannabis operations until we better understand the dynamics of the new law,” the Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing on July 1 that night Connecticut has decriminalized marijuana.

After hearing testimony from a state senator, union leader, city health director, head of a nonprofit drug abuse prevention organization, and Rosenthal’s, the chairman of the planning and zoning commission proposed a moratorium on cannabis retail stores and medical marijuana facilities from December. 1.

George Benson, the city’s planning director, recommended that action be taken more quickly.

“We should ban it tonight and it can be checked again later,” said Benson.

The voluntary five-person planning and zoning commission agreed, and voted 4: 1, to ban cannabis companies that want to do business in the city, such as breeders, producers, retailers and medical dispensaries.

The Newtown ban will not affect adults who may now have marijuana for their own use.

The new state law allows people 21 and older to have 1.5 ounces of marijuana with them and up to an additional five ounces of marijuana in a safe place such as their home or car. The law allows patients in Connecticut’s medical marijuana program to have three mature marijuana plants and three smaller plants in their home – a provision that will be extended to the general adult public in 2023.

Although adult retail marijuana sales in Connecticut are unlikely to begin before the end of 2022, Benson said during the public hearing that Newtown was “concerned that people are filling out applications or buying buildings and giving them acquired rights before regulations can be enacted.” in place. “

The state created a cannabis website to help people understand the new law.

Rosenthal said cities across the state have had the same debate since the state Senate passed the “major and groundbreaking new law” on June 22.

“While I have no problem with legalizing cannabis possession, there is more at stake here when we look at retail sales,” wrote Rosenthal in a letter read at the public hearing. “We have a chance to get this right, and trying to do this within two weeks is not good public policy.”

Danbury, which has already approved the move of a medical marijuana dispenser in Bethel to a former bank in the west of the city, will consider a moratorium on cannabis facilities on July 27th. Waterbury has scheduled a public hearing on a moratorium on new cannabis facilities later this month.

Prospect has put in place a six month moratorium on all new cannabis facilities. In Ridgefield, which already bans medical marijuana dispensaries, First Selectman Rudy Marconi has proposed banning retail cannabis.

At the Newtown public hearing, concern for the youth was a predominant theme.

“I can’t believe the state of Connecticut has approved the legal use of cannabis with the rise in drug use,” Dorrie Carolan, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Newtown Parent Connection, said in a written statement. “At some point we need to protect our youth and put aside the monetary benefits of legalizing marijuana.”

State Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Newtown, agreed, saying in a written statement that marijuana is “a drug that has been medically proven to affect cognitive development in young people and can serve as a gateway drug to addiction.”

The Newtown ban, which goes into effect July 24, lifts the zoning that allows medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.

In 2018, the Newtown Planning and Zoning Commission approved a medical marijuana pharmacy that never went through because the seller was denied a license by the state Department of Consumer Protection.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342