Board of Health weighs in on Pot Shops
In what can only be described as comical, the BOH has issued draft guidelines for pot shops in Framingham. The hired gun, Wong never read the State approved regs and had no clue in how many pot shops were even allowed in Framingham. Based on liquor licensees, that boils down to 5 shops. This guy comes from a country that executes drug users and has little understanding of democracy and the will of the voter. Backed up by Hugo who has traditionally been apposed to all marijuana related issues. He's the one that said in a meeting years ago, that people would be smoking pot at the Town Hall, if the BOH didn't impose fines for doing so.
This is the worst example of over reach by local boards and shows their true spirit and disregard for Q4 that was passed overwhelmingly in this Town for 16 years, 6 separate ballot questions.
Along with that bad news, Council Chair Giombetti appointed Sam Mecurio to the marijuana task force. A know-nothing guy who has never been an advocate, never read the State regs and is a want-to-be insider and party loyalist.
Look for the industry to be stopped by the zealots and by adding unnecessary regulatory rules that will cause business owners think twice and Framingham's rightful place in capturing the revenue that will come in local taxes from a billion dollar industry.
One rule I thought was particularly odd was that pot shops are to be inspected by police 3 times a year for compliance. No other industry has that type of requirement imposed on it.
The BOH has the option of doing nothing and let the State regs control the industry, that's the fair and respectful way, but not here in Framingham.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 11:14 AM
14 Comments
14 Comments:
you can watch the entire meeting here:
http://207.172.210.8:5002/cablecast/public-site/index.html#/show/1416?channel=1
Please note that Mr. Wong asks if the BOH wants to see a proliferation of pot shops in Town. He and the BOH had no idea it is already governed by the amount of liquor licensees. Clearly, none of them know what they are talking about and would rather try to influence public opinion by using fear to get their point across.
In the beginning you will see the poor guy get shot down for a compassionate waiver for his vap shop. Again, one member contends that vaping is a gateway drug to cigarettes, which is nothing more than reefer madness.
Although I agree with your intent Jim, I strongly disagree with your method of achieving it. This is about the issue of regulations, not about where someone is from. That is a bigotted statedment and one I am shocked to hear you make. Sounds like you are a Trump fan to me and that is a shocker On the X Lawyer statement, I gave you more credit that taking shots at someone when they are down.
Stick to this issues Jim, don't attack the messengers, unless you have no facts that differ from their statements. If your facts support your goal, then you should not need to attack the person who disagrees with you. Completely below the man I thought you were.
Give someone enough rope and they will hang themselves as you just did. Really, using someone's country of origin as a reason to belittle him? You won't get a pass on that from me or anyone else.
Pretty funny to see you say "the respectful way" in this post were you completely disrespect two BOH members.
Didnt anyone ever teach you about the pitfalls of opening your mouth and inserting your foot? Will take a very big tow truck to pull your foot out of your mouth after these statements.
Is this post from a guest blogger perhaps our new president? i came here to post something along the lines of what everyone else is posting based on your blog post today but they have already done a very good job of pointing out to you how bad your comments are. i know you to be a man who often speaks before he thinks but is not a bigot so i am going to attribute this to the fact you once again spoke before you thought but you need to remember that those who don’t know you in person judge you by what you write and after this posting i understand them judging you a bigot i hope you are going to clarify what you meant by these statements
Aren’t you the one who defended Judy Grove when she was bullied at a skate park meeting? Guess you don’t practice what you preach. You are bullying two people here. Not much information about what the BOH is proposing for regulations here in Framingham that are so bad, just a bunch of crap about what is wrong with the people making the proposals. Poorly played. You had my ear in the past when you spoke intelligently on the issues. You lost it with this post bullying and belittling people and not speaking on the reason to not support their proposal at all.
It’s a new world and you are either a good guy or a Trumponian and this post makes you sound like a Trumponian. Surprised at that. You always fight the tough battles and speak your mind but you crossed the line here bringing up someone’s ethnicity as a reason to not support them. Were you not paying attention when Trump went after the judge who was Mexican, or perhaps you agreed with Trump’s remarks about that? Bad move here. You were the voice I respected on this topic but you have lost your credibility with me.
What the hell do you have against Mercurio, Wong and Hugo? And why are you throwing them under the bus instead of talking about what additional regulations they are looking to pass? Notice everyone here is posting about that instead of about the regulations. Lets get back on track. So the cops get to do 3 inspections a year. Is that the only thing they are proposing beyond the regulations set by the state, or are there more than that? Let’s stick to the topic here and stop demeaning people who volunteer their time to work for the city and talk about what they are proposing that creates such animosity from you. You have done a lot of work on this issue. I would have expected you to have more factual and valuable things to say then bullying people.
I vented my frustration with the Council Chair. Sam has had nothing to do with anything in the marijuana movement in 30 years. He is only there as a loyalist to Giomebetti and has not even read the regs. Bill Lynch also applied for the advocate position and was not picked as well.
After hearing what Wong had to say about pot shops.. you to perhaps would wonder where he gets his idea's from... and it's not here. In his country of origin, they execute drug dealers, something Trump is in favor of.
The purpose of the task force is to evaluate all the regs and determine what if anything the City should do.. simple as that. Giombetti wants a moratorium and a limit on all marijuana related businesses... this was not part of the ballot question as this City voted in favor of Q4. Nothing in the regs force or mandate anyone to take action, at any level except for a host agreement that is done through the Mayor which is mandatory. What the BOH did was just duplicate the same regulations, with a few added insults, designed to discourage marijuana business. Fore instance, they ban agriculture in the City, they ban gifting marijuana in the City, instead of BOH inspectors doing compliance checks, they insist on cops. Their creating an unfunded mandate for the City, when in fact, regs require a secret shopper program run by the State, state inspections by state employees and the right to farm is an unalienable right in this country and State. Their is a bill on the Hill that if enacted, would stop municipalities from banning agriculture. Eastligh could grow 2 acres of organic cannabis and would not have to turn the property into 50 houses if he choose to not peruse the TDR. But agin, it's a farmers right to grow anything heor she wants.
I'm not bullying anyone, merely voicing my deepest disappointment in the Chair of the City Council, who has written to me about my voice being heard in the past. Council member Stoll proclaimed, "Pillsbury should be the one advocate". "Saying he knows more than anyone in the State".
This was a deliberate attempt by the Chair to silence the only person in Town that would challenge the status quo, plain and simple.
It was Hugo that put forth addition fines for smoking pot in public years ago. No one has ever been caught smoking pot at Town Hall.. and will most likely not ever. He's never been objective about pot and it shows in his maintaining the status quo. Except for Wong who was sent a copy of the regs with a historical recap of marijuana in our City over the past 18 years, by myself. None of the BOH even read the regs. How can that be even construed as objective? How do you make local rules if you don't even read the State regs?
Trump has nothing to do with this rant. I'm merely pointing out a cultural difference in a Town employee who has control over the BOH with a clear and obvious bias against marijuana.
Hey Jim, I read your article and the comments. I don't understand all the negative feedback. Your articles are always informative and filled with facts.
The facts are ignored by the BOH. For more than 30 years I have met head on the propaganda machine and in the past 18 years, I've asked the voters at the ballot box what they thought about it. And they have responded favorably, 6 times since 2000. I'm tired of the same old propaganda pushed by prohibitionists in power. Some elected, some appointed but there's no changing their minds.. regardless of the will of the voter or the facts. I've lost my patience with those who want to deny my fellow residents their right to a plant. I'm tired of hearing the same old argument against pot. We changed the law, several times now and expect those in power to comply, not stand in the way.
I apologize if I have offended any of my readers.
Don't let them silence you Jim. We need your voice to make sure this gets done right.
Nice to see you explain the reason for the comments. I find it awfully hard to beleive they would not appoint you to this task force. Hope you are planning to hold Mercurio's feet to the fire to make sure it does a good job of representing our side in these discussion
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