HERMON, Maine — After a couple of tied votes, town councilors Thursday night agreed to recommend setbacks be established for outdoor medical marijuana growing operations.
The initial proposal, which called for a setback of 50 feet from residential property lines and 1,000 feet from schools, failed after council members tied in a vote on the matter, Town Manager Roger Raymond said Friday.
A subsequent motion to recommend a 75-foot setback from neighbors’ property lines and 1,000 feet from schools also failed because of a tie, Raymond said.
The third try proved to be the charm, with all but one of the present councilors voting in favor of recommending a 55-foot setback from neighbors and 1,000 feet from schools, he said.
Local officials began looking at imposing stricter regulations on growing the plants late last year, after residents complained they could smell and see marijuana grown by neighboring medical pot caregivers.
The problem primarily involved medical marijuana caregivers who grow plants in their backyards, Raymond said last month. Complaints in some cases came from parents concerned about the close proximity of the plants to their children.
“People are saying, ‘In my neighborhood, it smells like pot all the time.’ If you’ve got a young family with kids and you’ve got one of these gardens sitting, say, a few feet away from your property line, tell me how you’d feel,” Raymond said earlier.
The Maine Medical Use of Marijuana Act allows caregivers to serve up to five patients at a time. Each caregiver may maintain up to six flowering plants and 12 not-yet-mature plants, per patient. Each patient can buy up to 2.5 ounces of medical marijuana every 15 days.
According to the law, the plants must be kept in an enclosed, locked facility — except when the caretaker is moving the plants to his or her own property in order to cultivate them. Access to the growing area is limited to the caregiver, though invited elected officials may enter for educational purposes, emergency services personnel and those who need to enter to make repairs or do construction.
The law also requires caregivers be at least 21 years old and free of disqualifying drug crime convictions.
Raymond said that when he asked the town’s legal counsel to look into what the town could do to better regulate how and where caretakers could grow their medicine, the answer was not much.
“The bottom line is there’s two things that we can regulate,” Raymond said last month. “We can regulate the setback, as long as it’s reasonable, and the height of the fence.”
Raymond said Friday the minimum fence height for outdoor grows would remain at 6 feet and current caretakers would be grandfathered.
The legal opinion the town received from its attorney, Ed Bearor, noted it is not clear whether municipalities can go beyond those measures as municipalities’ home rule authority with regard to patients’ and caregivers’ medical marijuana cultivation has not yet been tested in the Maine courts and remains unclear.
The proposed land use ordinance change next will go before the town’s Planning Board, which Raymond said likely will conduct a public hearing in February. He said the setback could go back before the Town Council for a final decision as early as March.
Raymond said several members of the council remain concerned that growing operation security measures set forth in state law might not go far enough. That may be a subject they take to state legislators, he said.