CARIBOU, Maine — When Maine voters narrowly passed Question 1, legalizing recreational marijuana in the state, the City of Caribou voted in an emergency ordinance banning any pot-related establishments within its borders.
According to City Manager Austin Bleess, the city had already received one application for a pot dispensary in the time between the Nov. 8 vote and their Nov. 14 meeting, when they passed the emergency ordinance. While medical marijuana is legal in Maine, the city manager’s concern was that someone could just change the nature of the store to include recreational pot as soon as the substance is officially legal for recreational use in Maine.
City Council recently held a public hearing about the issue during their Nov. 28 meeting and subsequently passed a second ordinance preventing any marijuana-related establishments in Caribou for 180 days after the Nov. 14 emergency ordinance was passed.
Local resident Michelle Smith approached council members with concerns about pot being legally available in Caribou.
“I just wanted to put a few points out there to consider,” Smith said. “Two thirds of the voters in Caribou just said ‘no,’ and marijuana is still classified by the federal government as a Schedule 1 substance. Just because something is legal or available doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for the city. There is inadequate data concerning the ramifications of legalizing marijuana recreationally, and there are communities out there, including Teller County, Colorado, that have exclusively banned it. So if it is determined that we don’t want it, we can actually prohibit it from being here.”
A second resident, Jonathan Clark, mentioned the possibility of keeping any marijuana establishments in the outskirts of Caribou.
“I’d like to say that perhaps (you) don’t have any dispensaries inside the town,” Clark said. “There are a lot of schools downtown, so it might be better to keep it in the outskirts of Caribou. That way you won’t have to deal with it downtown and people can still have access.”
