How They Voted: Medical Marijuana

The State House of Representatives last night voted to approve a bill legalizing the medical use of Marijuana, by a vote of 96-51 (full story: CT News Junkie).

Here is how our city's delegation voted:
Christy Carpino (R, 32nd District): YES
Joe Serra (D, 33rd District): NO
Gail Hamm (D, 34th District): YES
Matt Lesser (D, 100th District): YES

Proponents of the bill expect the Senate and the Governor to support the bill. If they do, Connecticut would join New Jersey, Rhode Island, 16 other states in allowing medical cannabis.

The bill has a number of conditions on the prescription, production, sale, and use of medical marijuana that do not exist on prescription drugs.

Medical Marijuana - Take 2

Last month the Planning and Zoning Commission voted down an item that would have imposed a complete prohibition on any sale of medical marijuana in Middletown. Several previous EYE articles have covered this and can be easily found by typing "medical marijuana" in the search box at the upper left.

I asked the Zoning Office about the revised language that has been proposed and will be voted on at the June 9th meeting. Michiel Wackers from the department sent me the details which I have included below exactly as provided to me. According to Wackers, "this approach would allow the Commission to consider proposals for sale or dispensation only if it is not the primary function. The additional requirements are based off of language from Frisco, Colorado." The revised language drops the all-out ban and imposes some actual regulation. There will be opportunity at the June 9 meeting for public comment. The Commissioners' contact information is also available on the Middletown Planning website:

http://www.middletownplanning.com/Committees/PZ/pzmembership.html

The new language looks to allow sale or dispansation as an accessory use as defined by 16.01.01 of the code.

"ACCESSORY USE OF STRUCTURE- A use or structure subordinate to the principal use of a building or to the principal use of land and which is located on the same lot serving a purpose customarily incidental to the use of the principal building or land use. "

Add to the Accessory Uses Section:

Section 60.03.03 Sale or Dispensation of Marijuana and/or Medical Marijuana

Zones: ID, TD, MX, and I-3

Add to the Special Exception Section:

Section 44.08.45 Sale or Dispensation of Marijuana and/or Medical Marijuana

1. The Sale or Dispensation of Marijuana and/or Medical Marijuana shall be on the premises of, and accessory to, an active hospital with more than 50 beds, Pharmacy, or Medical Clinics with more than five (5) practitioners, specifically excluding those whose principal service is mental health and/or substance abuse diagnosis and treatment.

2. Sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana dispensary shall be permitted by special exception subject to the following restrictions:

a. No sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana shall be located within 500 feet of any license child care facility at the time of establishment of the dispensary.

b. No sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana shall be located within 500 feet of any educational institution or school, either public or private, at the time of establishment of the dispensary.

c. No sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana shall be located within 500 feet of any halfway house or correctional facility at the time of establishment of the dispensary.

d. No sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana shall be located within 100 feet of a residential dwelling at the time of establishment of the dispensary.

e. No sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana shall be located in any zone except ID zone, TD Zone, MX Zone, and I-3 Zone.

f. No sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana shall be in a building containing residential units at the time of establishment of the dispensary.

g. No sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana shall be located in a movable or mobile structure.

h. No sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana shall be located with 1000 feet of another medical marijuana dispensary.

i. All sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana dispensing and production/cultivation activities shall be conducted indoors.

j. All product storage shall be indoors. Products, accessories, and associated paraphernalia shall not be visible from a public sidewalk or right of way. All products shall be in a sealed/locked cabinet except when being accessed for distribution.

k. The business may only be open for the sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana during the hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

3. Registration

a. The owner of a building or premises, his/her agent for the purposes of managing, controlling, or collecting rents, of any other person managing or controlling a building or premises, any part of which contains the sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana, shall be register annually with the Director of Health the following information:

i. The address of the premises.

ii.The name of the owner of the premises and names of the beneficial owners if the property is in a land trust.

iii. The address(es) of the owner and the beneficial owners.

iv. The name of the business or establishment subject to the provisions of paragraph C.

v. The name(s) of the owner, beneficial owner of the major stock holders of business or the establishment subject to the provisions of paragraph C.

vi. The address(es) of those persons named in subparagraph (e).

vii. The date of initiation of the sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana.

viii. If the building or premises is leased, a copy of the said lease shall be attached.

b. It shall be unlawful for the owner or person in control of any property to establish or operate thereon or permit any person to establish or operate an sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana without first having properly registered and received certification of approved registration.

c. The owner, manager or agent of a registered sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana shall display a copy of the Registration Form approved by Director of Health in a conspicuous place of the premises.

From 1810: On the Cultivation of Hemp

The following article is from exactly 200 years ago today, published in the Hartford Courant on May 2, 1810. It was written by "S.C.I."

Hemp was a critical crop in Connecticut for almost 300 years. It was so critical for sail cloth, rope, cord, and sturdy clothing that in 1632 Connecticut mandated that every farmer cultivate hemp. Demand for Connecticut hemp was high during the 19th century, when European wars cut off supplies of Russian hemp, and the American Civil War increased demand. Hemp cultivation gradually declined as machines for harvesting and processing cotton made cotton cheaper. Hemp farming in Connecticut (and everywhere else in the U.S.) was completely ended by the Marihuana Act of 1937.

The photographs are from a history of industrial hemp production and from Hemphasis.

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IT is believed that there is at this time no crop that so well compensates the labors of the husbandman as that of Hemp. --Many persons have erroneously supposed that it required a peculiar soil and that its cultivation was attended with much uncertainty. --It is now however ascertained from daily experience, that not only the fertile banks of the Connecticut and Genesee rivers, but most of our warm uplands, if properly prepared, produce it in abundance.--The situation of many of our river towns, particularly of Wethersfield, is on many accounts peculiarly favorable to its production. --Their light warm soil, their convenience for water rotting in the cove, and the facility with which it may be sent to market by the river, are great and important advantages. Still without these, there are few towns in the State where any other seed can be put into the ground that shall yield so many hundred fold. --As evidence of the profits arising from the cultivation of hemp, I would state, that thirty-five dollars per acre have been paid for one years use of land for this purpose. And I am credibly informed that the town of Longmeadow has received at Boston,New York, and New-Haven, thirty-five dollars for one years crop. An average crop from land in good heart may be considered from 8 to 12 cwt. per acre; and the land if properly taken care of the second year will produce more than it did

the fires. A judicious farmer in my neighborhood lately told me that he had taken 8 cwt. off an acre last year and had no doubt that with little more attention he should this year get at least 12 cwt. --I have noticed in the Courant that $415 per Ton had lately been paid in Boston, for hemp raised at Longmeadow--this is a very unusual price--it has been considered a fair peace price at $200 when our intercourse was open with Russia; and at that, it will pay vastly more than any other crop, as may be seen by the following very liberal estimate of cultivating and dressing the product of one acre that is in good order.--

12 Loads of Manure, 12,00

Ploughing and Harrowing 3 times, 6,00

2 1-4 Bushels of seed, at 1 D 9,00

Sowing and Harrowing 1,00

Pulling and Carting 3,00

Breaking and Swingling 15,00

_____

46,00

Sure profit, per acre, 54,00

Half a ton, at 200D. 100,00

The above estimate which is undoubtedly as high as it should be would be reduced considerably by having the hemp dressed in a mil, for which purpose a number are already erected about the country, and by converting the stocks or shives into manure, which purpose they answer to a considerable degree.

There exists no danger from a glutted market, it will never be imported cheaper from abroad, and should we go successfully into the cultivation of it, for many years to come we should not more than equal the demand, there would be as soon as our ships are permitted to spread their sails on the ocean.

The following method of cultivation has been practised with great success. --The ground if not already broken up to be thoroughly ploughed in the fall, that the turf may be well rotted; and in the spring, as early as the season will permit, to be ploughed again with more or less manure, according to the condition of the land; the ploughing to be repeated until the soil becomes light and mellow; that which is peculiarly proper would not require more than two ploughings in the spring: the seed to be sown, and well harrrowed in, on a very even surface, from the 1st to the 10th of May, that it may be out of the way of frosts, by which it is liable to be injured. When the blossom falls from the male help, as it will be about the middle of August, it is to b pulled the making alleys through the field and selecting the male from the seed hemp, which is to be left a month longer to ripen.--to be bound with rye straw in small bundles and left a few days in the field to dry that the bark may be tougher and not injured in the moving--the bundles to be laid under water to rot from 10 to 20 days according to the weather, as it rots much the fastest in warm weather. Clear, standing, soft water is best for this purpose, and salt-water, by a recent English publication is considered altogether inadmissible. After it is sufficiently rotted, which is easily ascertained by drying and breaking a little of it, the bundles to be dried in the open air and when thoroughly dried, to be housed; when dressed, first to be passed through a course brake and afterwards through a common one and swingled like flax.

The seed hemp is to be pulled as soon as the seed begins to fall from the stalk, and to be bundled and carried immediately to the place where it is to be threshed, there to be set up in the sun a few days and then gently threshed; and again put in the sun a few days more and afterwards threshed again--it is then to be treated as before directed for the male hemp.

This may serve as a general direction, but the intelligent farmer will make such experiments as his land, his situation and his convenience will permit, and by communicating the result will confer and obligation on that class of society of which the writer of this is one.

Medical Marijuana

The Information Part:

I spoke to the Planning office today regarding this from a previous Eye post:

"The Planning and Zoning Commission scheduled a public hearing on a proposed zoning Code text amendment regarding the "sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana." This hearing will be at the April 28 meeting."

I was told by the Planning office that the in light of the state legislature getting involved with medical marijuana regulation, the City of Middletown is doing some preemptive legislation of its own to prohibit the dispensation of medical marijuana, due to the unknown nature of what form any state legal action may take. I am paraphrasing here everything that I was told by the Planning office. The City is planning to handle this similar to the way that tattoo parlors and gambling establishments are handled. The City wants to strengthen its hand in regulating such activities now, which they feel will be better than trying to regulate such activities after-the-fact of any state passed legislation. The City compares the situation to about 15 or 20 years ago when gambling and riverboat casinos were a hot topic. At that time a zoning code was adopted to prohibit gambling. The City made it clear that they are not trying to take away any state or federally granted rights, but rather are trying to address the issue from a position of strength and to retain control over the City's regulation rather than having issues of "grandfathering" in and after-the-fact attempts to regulate. If there is some legislation passed at the State level, then the City has indicated that they can propose additional amendments to align with the state regulations.

The exact language that is under consideration for a vote is:

"Add:

Section 61.05.03- Sale or dispensation of marijuana and/or medical marijuana is prohibited ZONES- ALL"

Michiel Wackers of the Department says, "As staff we are looking at this from a use, in the zoning sense, perspective. We are not looking at this as a public health, criminal or social policy question. This is a step to regulate this to protect the interests of the community. Questions/disuccsion of relaxing any regulation should be held off until we know what form of legalization, if any, the State decides to implement.

Use is defined by the zoning code as: 'The principal purpose for which a lot or the main building thereon is designed, arranged or intended and for which it is used or may be used, occupied or maintained.'

There is a bill in the general assembly to tax marijuana.

The April 28 scheduled public hearing will most likely be postponed to May 12, 2010. "

The Commentary Part:

Attached is a Memo from the City Planning Office to the Planning and Zoning Commission explaining the City's rationale for taking action on this issue. It contains an extremely unfortunate first sentence under the "Possible Actions" section regarding Middletown being family-friendly. This is irrelevant and nonsensical to this issue, in my opinion. In discussion of zoning regulations placed on liquor stores or bars, such as Public, do we discuss family-friendliness? We are talking about medical establishments. Other than that, the memo is relatively factual and concise about the logic for why this is being proposed. Frankly, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the need for this, and it seems to be a little bit hypocritical in that what the City is proposing seems counterproductive to what they say they are trying to accomplish. But, perhaps I am misinterpreting these actions? The Memo references additional information of two articles which are also attached here (both are together in one picture).

If the State does legalize medical marijuana, it is my hope that the City will use the opportunity to take advantage of the giant boon to revenue that this could represent. With all the talk about being more business-friendly, here is a perfect opportunity where the state is potentially going to enable the City to do just that. We missed the opportunity to collect tax revenue from other recently voted on endeavors in Maromas, let's not miss this one.