SOUTHINGTON — Residents won’t be voting on whether to allow local marijuana sales in November but may have a chance next year.
Stacey Dolan, leader of the effort to collect the necessary signatures to put the question on the ballot, said she won’t have enough names by the Aug. 25 deadline.
“We will roll over the signatures and aim for the 2022 election instead,” Dolan said Wednesday.
This summer, the state legislature legalized recreational marijuana and allowed towns to regulate or prohibit sales. It also allowed residents to put the question to referendum, which would supersede any other town action.
According to the state law, Dolan and supporters would have needed 3,146 signatures from registered voters by the deadline to put the question on November’s ballot.
The group was less than halfway there earlier this month. Hundreds of signatures needed to be resigned or thrown away from earlier efforts due to confusion over petition language.
Dolan said residents overwhelmingly support the petition and nearly all approached are willing to sign. But it’s been difficult getting volunteers to gather signatures at events or during walks through neighborhoods. Dolan is also dealing with some family health problems.
“I realized that I wasn’t going to spend my summer trying to force people to sign a petition to give them a voice,” she said.
Dolan is optimistic that she’ll have the needed signatures in time for next year’s election and plans to gather names at the Apple Harvest Festival this fall.
“I feel confident with the Apple Harvest alone to get the signatures needed to complete the petition,” she said.
Town considers prohibition
State law also allows towns to prohibit or regulate recreational marijuana sales through zoning. On Tuesday night, the Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing on a zoning regulation that would prohibit sales and cultivation in Southington.
Medicinal marijuana sales are allowed in one area of town, although no dispensary has started up locally.
Bob Hammersley, commission chairman, took an informal vote and all but one commission member supported a recreational marijuana dispensary prohibition. Hammersley hopes to vote on the regulation at the September commission meeting.
Speakers during Tuesday’s public hearing were split on supporting and opposing recreational marijuana sales.
Local towns that allow dispensaries will be able to collect a three percent tax on sales. Victoria Triano, Town Council chairwoman and a Republican, said that increase would be offset by a rise in police and emergency costs related to marijuana usage.
“I cannot come up with one reason why we would want to do it,” she said. “We really do not need recreational marijuana dispensaries in town… For our community, I think that we should not have it recreationally in town.”
Several speakers in favor of recreational sales said a local prohibition would only stop a local business, not the local use of cannabis.
“Blocking a dispensary from opening would not change whether cannabis is used in town,” said Aaron Wade. “If people are going to buy it anyway, why not keep the tax dollars in Southington?”
The next Planning and Zoning Commission meeting is scheduled for Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. at the John Weichsel Municipal Center, 200 N. Main St.
jbuchanan@record-journal.com203-317-2230Twitter: @JBuchananRJ