{"id":563,"date":"2021-08-19T20:21:29","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T20:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CBMiqQFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmJyaXN0b2xwcmVzcy5jb20vQlAtU291dGhpbmd0b24rSGVyYWxkK05ld3MvMzk0ODQxL3NvdXRoaW5ndG9uLXJlc2lkZW50cy1wZXRpdGlvbi10by1mb3JjZS1yZWZlcmVuZHVtLW9uLW1hcmlqdWFuYS1kaXNwZW5zYXJpZXMtZmFpbHMtdG8tZ2V0LWVub3VnaC1zaWduYXR1cmVz0gEA"},"modified":"2021-08-19T20:21:29","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T20:21:29","slug":"southington-residents-petition-to-force-referendum-on-marijuana-dispensaries-fails-to-get-enough-signatures-the-bristol-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=563","title":{"rendered":"Southington resident’s petition to force referendum on marijuana dispensaries fails to get enough signatures – The Bristol Press"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

@brianjohnsonBP <\/p>\n

SOUTHINGTON \u2013 Resident Stacey Dolan\u2019s petition to force a referendum on marijuana dispensaries had to \u201cre-launch\u201d due to an issue with filing. As a result, she won\u2019t be able to gather enough signatures for the issue to appear on this year\u2019s ballot and she is aiming instead for 2022. <\/p>\n

\n

Dolan said she had to \u201crevitalize\u201d the petition due to a \u201cprocess issue\u201d which rendered the first round of signatures she collected in early July \u201cdeficient.\u201d Dolan started a new petition July 20 and will have until Jan. 20 next year to collect the required 3,146 signatures for the referendum to appear on the November 2022 ballot. Dolan added a family member fell ill around the same time, which became her priority. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor people who still want the tax money, I will continue on,\u201d she said. \u201cFor those who don\u2019t want a dispensary in town, they can vote against it in 2022. With everything going on, I had to put family first for a while and take care of that.\u201d <\/p>\n

When Dolan started her petition, she said she felt that the town council would oppose having a dispensary. Her goal, she said, was to have \u201ca more open discussion\u201d with the community. <\/p>\n

After going door to door, Dolan said she feels as though \u201c80%\u201d of the people who spoke to her are against having a dispensary in town. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe a lot of people want it, but I feel that for the most part people are not educated on the issue enough,\u201d she said. \u201cI had to explain to a lot of people that recreational marijuana is now legal in Connecticut. People argue as though if a dispensary doesn\u2019t come in then recreational marijuana won\u2019t be legal. Marijuana is already here and it\u2019s already being smoked.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dolan said her goal is not to push an agenda. Regardless of whether or not people sign her petition, she said, Southington residents can still \u201cdrive 15 minutes down the road to Newington.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cEven if we gather enough signatures next year, Newington\u2019s dispensary will still be able to open their doors before we ever could,\u201d Dolan said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to be making the kind of money that we would have if we were the first, or even the second or third town in Connecticut to open a dispensary.\u201d <\/p>\n

Brian M. Johnson can be reached at 860-973-1806 or bjohnson@bristolpress.com. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Posted in The Bristol Press<\/a>, Southington Herald<\/a> on Thursday, 19 August 2021 16:14. Updated: Thursday, 19 August 2021 16:17. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

@brianjohnsonBP SOUTHINGTON \u2013 Resident Stacey Dolan\u2019s petition to force a referendum on marijuana dispensaries had to \u201cre-launch\u201d due to an issue with filing. As a result, she won\u2019t be able to gather enough signatures for the issue to appear on this year\u2019s ballot and she is aiming instead for 2022. Dolan said she had to \u201crevitalize\u201d the petition due to a \u201cprocess issue\u201d which rendered the first round of signatures she collected in early July \u201cdeficient.\u201d Dolan started a new petition July 20 and will have until Jan. 20 next year to collect the required 3,146 signatures for the referendum… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/southington-residents-petition-to-force-referendum-on-marijuana-dispensaries-fails-to-get-enough-signatures-the-bristol-press.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}