BOURNE – Residents in Bourne will decide this spring on whether the town will place a one-year moratorium on recreational marijuana shops.
Earlier this month, the board rejected a proposed town meeting article to completely opt out of having marijuana shops and instead voted 4-1 to just place the moratorium article on the warrant.
Selectmen voted to place the moratorium article before voters to give the state legislators more time to answer the questions that still remain on the law which was passed by voters in November.
“We are looking at both sides of the coin to make sure that we have touched all the bases because there is no language within the law that was passed in November to tell the towns how to either opt out or do something else,” said Bourne Selectman Stephen Mealy.
Residents in Bourne voted against the legalization of recreational marijuana by a slight margin in November.
Mealy said he wanted town meeting voters to have the opportunity to continue that track and have the option of opting out before deciding on the moratorium.
“Unfortunately my board voted to not place the opt out on so that they denied the ability of the voters to opt out immediately,” Mealy said. “It’s interesting because even if the town should vote to opt out now and they want to opt back in later they can. So this is not a one-time vote by any individual town one way or another.”
Several towns are placing town meeting articles before voters this spring to decide on the future of recreational marijuana sales. Falmouth, Sandwich and Dennis are letting voters decide on both a ban and moratorium. Yarmouth, Harwich and Bourne are placing just the moratorium before voters.
“It’s kind of all over the map right now,” Mealy said.
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