INQUIRY, AND RULES, HERALD CITY POT CLINIC

Former California Operator Interested

AUGUSTA -- With at least one inquiry already made about opening a
nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary in Augusta, city councilors
are considering rules to restrict where such facilities could locate.

Councilors discussed ordinance changes to address medical marijuana
dispensaries Thursday, and are expected to consider the first of two
required readings to adopt the changes at their business meeting next week.

In the meantime, a now-local resident who City Manager William
Bridgeo said has worked with an established medical marijuana
dispensary in California hopes to open a facility in or around Augusta.

"Thank you for implementing regulations that will, hopefully, prevent
a lot of problems which could occur if you weren't ahead of the
curve," Becky Dekeuster, a new resident of Augusta who expressed
interest in opening a medical-marijuana facility, said after
councilors discussed drafting the rules Thursday.

Dekeuster said Thursday she was not representing a specific group but
has previously indicated, before a state task force that wrote
Maine's medical marijuana rules, she has worked with the Berkeley
Patients Group, which has run a dispensary in California for 10 years.

In a November 2009 state referendum, voters approved allowing
nonprofit dispensaries to open across the state. Earlier this month,
the state Department of Health and Human Services' Division of
Licensing and Regulatory Services announced it is accepting
applications from nonprofit corporations to become dispensaries under
Maine's Medical Use of Marijuana Act.

The Planning Board, after two public hearings on the subject,
recommended the city add medical marijuana growing and dispensing
facilities as an allowed use within the city'ss medical zoning district.

The new rules would also apply to methadone clinics.

Matt Nazar, deputy development director, said the city's current land
use ordinance did not specifically address either methadone clinics
or medical marijuana dispensaries. He said they both would have
likely fit into the city's definition of "medical clinics," which are
allowed in several zones in the city.

If councilors adopt the proposed new rules, both would only be
allowed in the medical district that surrounds the proposed future
site of a new MaineGeneral Medical Center hospital, as well as the
existing Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care, in north Augusta.

Nazar said the area is only a couple hundred acres in size, much of
which is owned by MaineGeneral.

Officials noted the city cannot ban dispensaries or methadone
clinics, but can regulate where they locate.

"My concern would be we don't have any zoning at all to deal with
this, if we don't act proactively," Councilor William Stokes said. "I
think the Planning Board has done a good job regulating and
restricting this to one part of the city."

The state Department of Health and Human Services will select eight
dispensaries, one in each of the state's eight public health districts.

Augusta is in a region that includes all of Kennebec and Somerset counties.