City Councilor Lydia Edwards is calling a hearing to assess Boston’s regulations of bars, liquor stores and cannabis establishments near substance abuse treatment facilities.
The hearing will discuss the current siting requirements for businesses serving these products and consider an update to the distance-based buffers while creating fairness between industries, according to Edwards.
Right now, the distance required between cannabis establishments is a 1/2 mile and they must also be 500 feet from K-12 schools. Businesses serving or selling alcohol are regulated through licensing and zoning, but do not have a similar distance-based buffer.
The hearing will be announced next week at the weekly meeting of the Boston City Council and scheduled for a later date. See the full public notice below.
I hope you all respect the will of the voters and stop putting obstacle after obstacle in the way. An obviously profitable business can’t open in MA but has been available since July 1. The whole thing stinks.
I hope you all respect my desire that I not have to bear marijuana smoke wafting through my apartment and that I not have to bear breathing it in on my walks through the neighborhood. So far, I’m not getting a lot of respect. Just as tobacco smoke was finally starting to wane….
And there it is folks. The NIMBYism of the North End. Advocate for appropriate places for it to be consumed, not blocking the will of a majority of your neighbors. The North End approved it too. And also acknowledge that you live in a city. People get drunk in bats here and that makes them louder on the street when they leave sometimes. Smoking cigarettes is legal. We all share close proximity on sidewalks. Would you support an all edible store?
How do you have proof the “majority of neighbors” support this? It passed on the ballots but that doesn’t mean the majority of people in every city and town approve of it.
If you read the papers, there are a ton of places in MA, small towns and large cities, which have the same sentiment as David…NIMBY is alive and well all over MA.
Read the voter rolls. The North End voted a majority to approve the legalization of recreational marijuana. As did many towns that are now also trying to keep stores out. It’s dishonest and hysterical. We are going to go to pot because of a pot store. Just like we all aren’t alcoholics because of many liquor stores… aren’t all addicted to cigarettes bc they are sold here.
Most residents oppose a Starbucks and Dunkin doughnuts in the NE so I do not see them supporting a cannabis store any time soon.