RI: North Smithfield Looks To Control, Regulate Marijuana Operations

Katelyn Baker;3282745 said:

North Smithfield – Citing threats to public health and safety, an official from the Office of Attorney General urged Town Council members this week to consider marijuana growers one of the town’s most urgent concerns.

Town Administrator Gary Ezovski, (pictured right), also said that marijuana regulation is among his top priorities, stating that updating North Smithfield’s laws to address it is the “number one issue” for the town’s Ordinance Development Committee.

“It’s happening,” Ezovski said. “We already have circumstances.”

Assistant Attorney General Joee Lindbeck laid out why her office sees growers as a threat: the state’s medical marijuana law – amended six times since 2006 – does not address ways to regulate and inspect Rhode Island’s newest crop of legal pot farmers. State law allows registered patients to grow up to 12 mature plants, and caregivers can have 24. Those that form a cooperative can increase the number of legal plants to 48.

“Rhode Island and three other states allow for the highest number of plant possession in the country,” said Lindbeck.

Indoor grow operations, Lindbeck noted, are typically not inspected, and use large volumes of electricity to power lamps, and regulate hydration, ventilation, temperature and humidity, at times overloading electrical systems.

“No one is going in there to make sure that it is OK with code,” she said.

Further dangers, she said, are caused by the process used to extract THC from marijuana to create a product with a higher concentration. Growers often use highly flammable substances such as butane to create a more potent BHO, or butane honey oil.

“Simple static or light of a match will blow the whole building up,” Lindbeck said.

The assistant attorney general said marijuana cultivation is known to have caused fires in East Providence, Pawtucket, Providence and Westerly. Additional fires were caused by the BHO process, she said, in South Kingstown, Westerly, Providence and West Warwick, also leading to one death.

Lindbeck also ran through a litany of concerns in states where recreational marijuana has been legalized. Colorado legalized the drug at the start of 2014 and overall, crime had increased 6 percent by 2015, she said. The number of emergency room visits and poison control calls have also gone up in the state.

Lindbeck recommended that the town enact zoning ordinances related to marijuana, and pass a resolution opposing commercialization in Rhode Island.

“Municipalities should have the ability to say no,” she said. “This is happening in your community. These problems are falling on your lap. You have safety issues in your neighborhood. The town has a lot of power in that.”

Communities throughout the state have been looking at ways to use municipal laws to address marijuana growth, and North Smithfield is not the first place the assistant attorney general has made her presentation. Zoning ordinances prohibiting compassion centers, where the drug can be distributed, have been passed in several communities, and others have specified rules for patient and caregiver growing facilities, with some not allowing cooperatives.

While statewide polls have shown that support for the legalization of recreational marijuana is growing – one released by Regulate Rhode Island earlier this month showed that nearly three out of every five residents supports the idea – those in law enforcement have often cited concerns with the details.

State lawmakers, meanwhile, have submitted legislation to legalize recreational use of the drug for the past six years, and have said they plan to try again in 2017. They are part of a growing national trend. Four states, including Massachusetts, legalized the drug in 2016, joining the four states and the District of Columbia in rolling back marijuana laws.

But proponents of that idea would find no friends on the North Smithfield Town Council, if Monday’s testimony was any indication.

“I believe that marijuana is not a harmless recreational drug. I believe it’s stage one,” said Council President John Beauregard, who served for 25 years as a state police officer. “It just graduates until someone is a drug addict.”

Councilor Claire O’Hara cited her experience as a teacher in dealing with those who try the drug at a young age.

“It starts with marijuana and it goes on to bigger and better things. There is no way in my lifetime that I will support anything like this,” O’Hara said of legalization.

Councilor Paul Zwolenski added, “I can see this being a major problem. We all know that marijuana is a gateway drug.”

Councilor Thomas McGee noted that inspections of homes with grow facilities would help to alleviate safety concerns. And he joined his fellow board members in the cry against legalization.

“America is bad enough right now,” McGee said. “I talk to kids and I try to help them, but they’d rather just have a nice buzz.”

Lindbeck sent Town Planner Tom Kravitz sample resolutions and ordinances, along with legislation passed in other Rhode Island communities. Kravitz is expected to draft a plan with help from the Ordinance Development Committee.

News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: North Smithfield Looks To Control, Regulate Marijuana Operations
Author: Sandy Seoane
Contact: (401) 334-9555
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Website: The Valley Breeze

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