In a May 26 meeting, the Select Board voted quickly and unanimously to ban home deliveries of recreational cannabis in Needham.
The ability to temporarily block recreational marijuana deliveries within a town’s jurisdiction was one of the provisions granted to Massachusetts communities when H.5350 — an act modernizing the state’s cannabis laws — was signed by Gov. Maura Healey in April.
Following the Select Board’s vote to opt out, Town Manager Katie King will apply to the Cannabis Control Commission for a two-year waiver that will formalize their decision.
Board member Cathy Dowd referenced Needham’s historical stance on marijuana, with Town Meeting votes in favor of medicinal but against recreational, and zoning bylaws prohibiting recreational cannabis dispensaries in town.
“Town Meetings spoke clearly on this, to keep recreational marijuana out of the town,” she said. “In my view, this state law, which I feel is badly drafted but we’re stuck with it, eviscerates our bylaw. And given that we have the option to opt out, I feel that we should opt out.”
Ahead of the Select Board meeting, the Board of Health discussed their position on the new law in a May 15 meeting, coming to the same conclusion as the Select Board.
“At a very basic level, we know that increasing the availability of substances leads to increased uses throughout the community that leads to sort of increased normalization and a reduced perception of risk,” director of health and human services Tim McDonald said during the meeting.
Stephen Epstein represented the Board of Health’s perspective in a public comment to the Select Board.
“The CCC’s regulations require … a licensed retailer to have age verification at the door, to have cameras — it’s pretty strictly controlled; we kind of have some doubts about how reliably in practice, delivery after delivery, driver after driver, with hundreds of doorsteps in the commonwealth, how this is going to happen,” he said. “They don’t have trained staff or fixed cameras in the cars. A car in a driveway has none of it, and we expect the practical implication is going to be inconsistent ID checks [and] product reaching adolescents in homes where parents aren’t present.”
“We’re going to have drivers from companies based in other towns, operating under state licenses, with limited local visibility to who’s delivering, when and [to] whom,” he added. “We don’t believe that’s a sustainable model for protecting our youth.”
The Board of Health’s decision was also based on a lack of financial incentive to opt in (given the ban on recreational dispensaries in town), the availability of medicinal marijuana for health purposes, and youth perceptions of the drug.
“The board has focused often on, ‘How does this impact youth access and use?’ And I feel like adult use is still allowed — there’s locations in Brookline, there’s locations in Newton; they are a very short drive away, and there’s locations in Boston, Cambridge and everywhere else,” McDonald said to the Board of Health. “Do we need to have universal access here, and what is the unintended consequence for youth perception of harm?”
Needham will not be responsible for enforcing their decision. The practicality of preventing recreational pot shop deliveries within Needham will fall to the CCC. King noted she would seek clarity with the CCC on the specifics of enforcement.
“The Cannabis Control Commission currently has a list of all municipalities, and includes who currently has bans on brick-and-mortar recreational establishments,” she shared with the Select Board. “So my presumption is that they will update that relative to delivery as well, just so that those in the industry and licensees are clear about who has a waiver and who has not.” She added that future guidance and potential regulations will be forthcoming, based on an initial bulletin from the CCC.
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