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Chester Selectboard continues retail cannabis discussion ahead of vote

By Layla Burke Hastings, Sharon Huntley and Jordan J. Phelan
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CHESTER, Vt. — Despite the Chester Selectboard’s decision not to put the retail cannabis opt-in vote on the town meeting ballot, the board once again discussed the issue in their Feb. 2 meeting after a local resident petitioned for its inclusion.

For the last two voting years the Chester Selectboard has kicked the retail cannabis vote down the road citing lack of information.

So Chester resident and businessman Scott Blair went out and did something.

Moved by the further procrastination of the board in the last month to call a referendum, Blair sought signatures from 5 percent of Chester voters to get the retail cannabis option on Act 164 put on the voting ballot for this year’s Town Meeting.

Blair said it didn’t take long to gather signatures for the item to be added to the ballot.

“It took me less than a week,” Blair said in an interview with the Eagle Times. “At the last selectboard meeting I attended, the selectboard decided to push it down the line and not to act on it immediately. So I addressed them saying, ‘‘I know my rights as a citizen and that I can make a petition to put on the town vote with 5 percent of the town voters.’”

The 34-year-old said he has bent over backwards to help the selectboard understand his position and it is now time to step it and take citizen action.

“For a year and a half I have been trying to cooperate and collaborate with the town so this could be something that the town could take credit for actually being proactive about,” Blair said. “I have given them presentations and approached them multiple times about it and they had the same answers: ‘I don’t have enough information’ or ‘We don’t feel comfortable with that.’”

The board now wants to get as much information as possible out there before the vote so Chester residents can make an informed decision, according to Board Chair Arne Jonynas.

Blair, who owns the Southern Pie Café and a cannabidiol (CBD) shop of his own, said that CBD has been a therapeutically groundbreaking tool for his mental and physical well being.

“The relationship I have with CBD is that I have bipolar I disorder and the doctors wanted to put me on medication that would sedate me and kind of put me in a fog. They told me I could go on disability, which I was way too young to go on, in my opinion, so I wanted to take a more natural approach,” he said. “So I did a lot of research and studied CBD for mood disorders.”

Blair said the freedom of mental clarity was a game changer for him in his search for an answer to his mental health challenges. He also noted that CBD was just as effective in relieving physical and muscular inflammation in his body whereas over-the-counter pain relievers such as ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and aspirin had long-term physical caveats when used regularly.

“It worked out great for me and I didn’t have to take any regular medication. Traditional medication is a single dose and CBD was something I could use throughout the day,” Blair said. “I have also taken Ibuprofen a lot for inflammation and it was actually starting to affect my stomach, my gut and my liver. For me it was my natural approach to take care of my illnesses and ailments.”

Blair became passionate about his discovery and spread the word to friends and family about the positive effects CBD had on his physical and mental well-being.

“As soon as I found out it was helping me I started helping my friends and family with it,” Blair said. “Then I decided it was time to help the community and I brought it right to the storefronts and make it readily available so people can actually get the help that they need in a more natural way.”

In light of this discovery he kept researching the whole cannabis plant family and said the therapeutic discoveries he has made have driven him to continue his cause to make CBD, and now cannabis, readily available to local consumers.

“So for myself I have been in the CBD market for the last three years once the hemp regulations were passed and I have been selling it out of my pie shop. I have spent a lot of time understanding the hemp plant and it has the opposite effect that THC has in marijauna.,” Blair said “I have done a lot of research in marijauna and it is actually a great natural alternative to prescription medications.”

Since the end of prohibition, Blair has been observing the evolution of the Vermont state legislature’s action on the legalization of cannabis.

“Marijauna, in Vermont, is something you can grow yourself and possess yourself but you can’t purchase it yourself. So in between seasons you can’t get it. Or if you cannot grow it with a specific type of skill set you don’t have any access to it because it is against the law to sell it,” he said. “Recreational retail sales are against the law until this year. So my whole point is to make it readily available to the community so they can access it for their health so they can get it without having to travel to Massachusetts or Maine or try to do it illegally. There’s no reason that we don’t have that opportunity to have someone obtain this completely legal.”

Blair said he will be connecting strictly with local growers for both CBD and cannabis.

“In my CBD shop I use all local growers and quite a handful of them are going to be switching over. I grow myself and I also have other local growers that are involved in this and are going to be working on their small growers licenses so they will be featured at cannabis retail shops,” he said. “I will be selling from local growers, it will be tested and it’s going to be high quality cannabis. I’m not going to be looking at a third party commercial company doing it somewhere in a factory. I’m looking to capitalize on local growers who can supply high quality.”

Blair said packaging will be discreet and opaque as determined by the legislature and the state Cannabis Control Board.

“It’s going to be up to them [the seller] to package it and it has to be child proof,” he said, “I’m looking at organic and not something you are going to find at a big box store.”

He also said he is completely shying away from the medical cannabis conglomerates and wants strictly local organic products to be sold in his store so his customers will know the source and it will be consistent.

The products Blair will sell will have tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content listed on the labeling and potentially use zero plastic if possible.

“I will be requiring 100 percent labeling,” Blair said. “I have been to many dispensaries in Maine and Massechussetts just to research the abeling. I will be requiring the cannabinoid and the THC content so we can get the correct information out to the consumers.”

Jonynas said that currently there is no tax benefit to the town for opting-in, although the Vermont legislature is reviewing a bill that could change that. He also pointed to the fact that the town cannot make any special laws, rules, or regulations concerning the placement of a cannabis dispensary other than the state’s restriction requiring that it can’t be placed within 500 feet of a school.

Blair said he plans to buy his own building and make sure it is more than 500 feet from school zones, family and recovery oriented organization and parking will be safely closed in and ample.

Signage is something that is also going to be discreet according to Blair.

“It comes down to what the legislature says. But my store is not going to your typical dispensary,” he said. “It’s going to be very boutique-ish and elegant.”

Board members Jeff Holden and Lee Gustafson both asked about facility location, questioning whether other youth congregating areas also posed a restriction and why the distance did not match that of alcohol sales. Town Manager Julie Hance said she would find out those answers in time for their next meeting.

Holden and Gustafson also brought up issues about the growing of cannabis, including energy, pesticide use, and impact on ground water. Jonynas clarified that the vote is only to determine the sale of cannabis in Chester, and that growing is allowed and will not be regulated or impacted by the town. He also suggested that since Vermont is a farm state that encourages small farms, growers would likely be regulated the same as all agriculture.

Chester resident Robert Nied suggested that there was no urgency to approve the issue now, other than by Blair and the small percentage that signed the petition, and was concerned there was no data to look at and gauge how it would impact a town like Chester. He also said that the town would have less control over cannabis than it does alcohol.

Gustafson stated that other states, ones with a history in selling cannabis, were now dealing with unforeseen repercussions of their decision.

Chester resident Tim Roper refuted claims by both Nied and Gustafson citing information from the state cannabis control board which allows towns to set up a local cannabis control commission which can exert control over cannabis licensing, including enforcing zoning bylaws, addressing any public nuisance complaints, and even revoking a license.

He also added that, after doing some research, “I couldn’t find a single article where a municipality said they wished they had not allowed retail cannabis.” He went on to suggest that if someone was going to cite instances on a particular point, that they provide some documentation to support it.

Andi Goldman, a Ludlow resident who has worked in legal cannabis for many years and who was behind the recent retail cannabis effort in Ludlow, said she agreed with Roper and suggested they look to Massachusetts and Maine for feedback.

“Not only is there no buyer’s remorse in Massachusetts, but the highest officer for cannabis control has said that all of the fear mongering did not actually realize itself,” she said, adding that it would increase business throughout the rest of the town, keeping tourists from simply driving through Chester.

When asked on why a Ludlow resident was weighing in on the issue, Goldman said that since Ludlow had passed on opting-in, she was committed to providing education to surrounding towns, and if the measure passed in Chester, she would come to Chester to purchase.

Gustafson responded to Roper and Goldman’s statements, saying that he had provided the board a document, titled “Why Marijuana Retail Sales are Not Good for Chester,” prior to their last meeting, which had links that supported his point on unforeseen repercussions.

Jonynas said the board would have the issue again on their next agenda and find out the answers to questions raised at this meeting and discuss further. “I think it will help guide our town when it comes up to vote. [It’s] up to people to decide where they want to go with this issue,” he said.

The next Chester Selectboard meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. in person at Chester Town Office or via Zoom.

Within the next two weeks Blair will hold an informational meeting to educate and inform the voters with local growers speaking on their products and fielding questions from local residents.

Sharon Huntley of The Vermont Journal also contributed to this article.

vtreporter @eagletimes.com

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