By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer 

NAPLES — A discussion planted the seeds of what regulations the town might want to pass before too many marijuana growing facilities take root in the town.  

The Town of Naples put into place a moratorium on all new marijuana-based businesses so it could create regulations based on what residents want while taking into account the reality of the legal business.

“If you remember, we did a survey a couple years ago and we had [more than] 200 responses. The overwhelming response is that we don’t even want marijuana in Naples,” Naples Town Manager John Hawley said. “But the issue is: that’s easy to say for retail storefronts because we can highly regulate those and not include them. But, we already have medical growers in our community that are allowed to exist because of state regulation. Do we want to further regulate that?  Right now, we have no regulations. And, as you know, if we don’t regulate things, they tend to have a mind of their own.”

The discussion that led to the most recent moratorium included Naples Town Planner Ben Smith and Naples Code Enforcement Officer (CEO) Renee Carter. 

Carter said, “I got a call from a woman from Boston and she wants to do a medical grow. What is happening is that people are taking out medical marijuana growing licenses. People from out-of-state are coming here and getting the licenses that normally Mainers would get. They are calling to see if they can find a barn to grow and, they don’t have any clients from Maine. On a weekly basis, I get calls from people asking where they can grow.” 

Another concern is that a group of caregivers can get together as a collaborative and invest in a growing space. While one caregiver is allowed only five patients and a certain number of plants, a group of caregivers increases the number of plants and the size of the grow operation, Carter said. 

“We wanted to opt out. We didn’t want to be overrun with growing facilities. That was what the people [residents who answered survey] asked for,” she said.

However, the state has jurisdiction over medical marijuana, which has been legal for much longer than adult-use recreational  marijuana. 

“Medical marijuana is allowed to be growing,” Carter said.

Bob Caron II suggested passing the six-month moratorium.

“You could put a moratorium freeze. For those [people] who have made an investment, they would be grandfathered in,” Caron said. 

On Oct. 26, the Naples Board of Selectmen unanimously passed the moratorium, which would temporarily halt any new marijuana-based businesses. 

The motion stated there would be “No new marijuana facilities in the Town of Naples that would include but not limited to cultivation facilities, manufacturing facilities, marijuana product facilities, testing facilities . . .  and registered dispensariesuntil a new ordinance can be written and approved by the residents of Naples.”

Town Planner Smith said that towns have had different approaches to the vast field of marijuana businesses.  

“There are communities in Maine that based on state regulations have been regulating medical marijuana for a long time. There are also towns in Maine that are looking at adult-use recreational marijuana,” Smith said.

“There are a number of communities that have looked at licensing marijuana businesses. If you have ideas or thoughts on the types of things that Naples would be concerned about as you think about the future of these businesses in this community,” Smith said.  “The main purpose is to help think through these things so that we can have another discussion about how these will be treated.”

There were some questions as to whether or not the town could limit licenses to Maine residents. 

Chairman Jim Grattelo asked about prohibiting collaborations and keeping grow operations small.  

“Can we have an ordinance that says you can’t have a collaboration, and that you can only have one caregiver [per space]. Based on the survey, we want to regulate it as strictly as we can possibly can. We don’t want people getting together, buying a barn and having 200 plants in it,” Grattelo said.

Selectman Jim Turpin threw out the idea of a building with four bays in it, and each bay is rented to someone with a license to grow. 

“I think people in town don’t want to see it and that is what they expect of us. It is quite clear folks in town don’t want to see it — retail shops,” Turpin said. “But, if we are poking our nose in every barn and garage to see who is growing it, that is going to take up time that could be spent elsewhere.”

Grattelo said that the town could prohibit it and let potential customers go elsewhere. 

“We don’t need it. You can go to Windham and there are 25 places. It’s not like you can’t get it,” he said.