Pubdate: Sat, 17 Apr 2010
Source: Portland Press Herald (ME)
Copyright: 2010 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/744

AUGUSTA, HALLOWELL WORKING ON MEDICAL POT DISPENSARIES

Augusta plans another hearing April 27, while  Hallowell's manager is 
reviewing ordinances.

Officials in Augusta and Hallowell are preparing to  roll out new 
policies to accommodate medical marijuana  sales.

Augusta officials are drafting language to add medical  marijuana 
dispensaries to the city's land-use  ordinance, probably allowing 
them to operate in a  medical district near the Harold Alfond Center 
for Cancer Care in north Augusta.

In Hallowell, city councilors recently decided against  enacting a 
moratorium on marijuana dispensaries.  Instead, councilors directed 
City Manager Todd Shea to  handle permit applications for a 
dispensary as he would  an application to open any new business.

"The general feeling was, it's a business, not unlike a  pharmacy or 
any other business we'd have in the city,"  Shea said. "If that's how 
the state wants to treat it,  that's how the city wants to treat it."

In a November 2009 state referendum, voters approved  allowing 
nonprofit dispensaries to open across the  state. While regulators 
worked to craft rules  implementing the law, several Maine 
municipalities  worked to establish their own rules to regulate 
dispensaries within their borders.

The Augusta Planning Board held a public hearing  Tuesday that drew 
comment from a number of interested  parties, including health care 
professionals and people  who previously worked in dispensaries 
elsewhere and  have moved to Maine, according to Planning Board 
Chairman Corey Vose.

Vose said no board vote was taken on a proposal to add  language 
regulating medical marijuana dispensaries to  the city's land-use 
ordinance. Another public hearing  on the topic is planned April 27.

Planners asked Matt Nazar, the city's deputy  development director, 
to keep working on the proposal,  which would add medical marijuana 
dispensaries to the  types of businesses regulated by city code.

Dispensaries where marijuana is grown or sold to  registered users -- 
or both -- probably would be  allowed only in the Augusta's medical 
district, which  includes the proposed future site of a new 
MaineGeneral  Medical Center.

However, Nazar said, planners asked him to look into  allowing 
medical marijuana growing facilities in other  city zones, such as 
the industrial district and the  regional commerce district.

He said such grow-only operations essentially would  function as warehouses.

Shea said Hallowell Planning Board members have told  him some 
property owners in Hallowell have been  approached by people 
interested in opening a medical  marijuana dispensary.

On Monday, the Hallowell City Council decided against  enacting a 
moratorium on marijuana dispensaries. They  asked Shea to review the 
city's ordinances, determine  what zoning classification dispensaries 
might qualify  as and, if he thinks the city's existing rules are 
inadequate to address a dispensary, submit a proposal  to fill the 
gaps in city rules to the Ordinance Review  Committee.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart