The Town Council voted to delay any medical marijuana dispensaries from coming to Watertown until at least July 2014.
The council voted unanimously on July 15, the week after the Planning Board also approved the moratorium. The delay will give the town time to come up with zoning rules and bylaws for the dispensaries, which became legal with the passage of a state proposition in November 2012.
Currently, such dispensaries are not allowed by Watertown’s zoning rules. Communities cannot just zone the dispensaries out. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley ruled that a move to zone dispensaries out of Wakefield violated the law. Temporary bans were allowed, Coakley ruled.
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Along with coming up with zoning laws, the moratorium – which ends on June 30, 2014 - will allow the Watertown Department of Public Health to come up with regulations for medical marijuana facilities.
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