MMD BAN MAKES NOV. 2 BALLOT

The question to ban local medical marijuana dispensaries is going to
the voters.

The Windsor Town Board approved a resolution on Monday night that will
send a citizen-initiated petition to ban medical marijuana
dispensaries and other facilities within town limits to voters on Nov.
2.

The board, which could have simply adopted the petition as an
ordinance, instead opted to allow voters to decide the issue. The
board unanimously approved the resolution to send the question to voters.

The citizen-initiated petition to ban medical marijuana facilities in
Windsor was turned into the town clerk last week for
verification.

"The petition came in on Tuesday," said Windsor Town Clerk Patti
Garcia. "It had over 900 signatures on it."

The petition, which was verified by Garcia, was primarily organized by
two former Windsor town board members, Nancy Weber and Michael Kelly.

Weber said the decision to start a petition process to ban medical
marijuana dispensaries was the result of public outcry.

"The language passed by the state allows municipalities to ban these
facilities," Weber said. "During my tenure on the town board, I heard
a lot of citizens express a desire to ban these, so we decided to do
so."

The town board had the option to approve the ordinance as presented.
If it had been passed on Monday night on first reading and, on second
reading in two weeks, it would automatically have become part of the
Windsor Municipal Code, superseding any other ordinances already on
the books, according to Windsor Town Attorney Ian McCargar.

However, the ordinance failed by a motion of 3-4, with the yeas to
pass the ordinance being board members Mike Carrigan, Kristie Melendez
and Mayor John Vazquez. The nays were board members Robert
Bishop-Cotner, Jon Slater, Don Thompson and Mayor Pro-Tem Matthew O'Neill.

On July 27, the town board had unanimously passed an ordinance that
would regulate and restrict the number of medical marijuana
dispensaries that are allowed to locate in the town.

Medical marijuana first became an issue last December, when the town
board learned that in addition to In Harmony Wellness Center, which
had opened in June, and A New Dawn Wellness Clinic, which opened
earlier in December, there were six other dispensaries in the process
of opening in Windsor.

The town board put a moratorium into place to prevent the opening of
other dispensaries while they began work on an ordinance. Work was
halted after a couple of work sessions to wait until after three new
board members, Mike Carrigan, Kristie Melendez and Don Thompson were
seated in April.