The Ordinance Committee held a special meeting on Thursday at the Bristol Public Library, and when all the dust had settled, they argued the same arguments and voted the exact same way they had one week earlier. The final result was they voted to recommend to the full council an ordinance that bans the sale of marijuana by a retail or a hybrid retail establishment in Bristol.
The committee voted to allow businesses that grow and produce cannabis products to operate in Bristol. Cannabis can be grown and produced here, but not sold here in a retail or hybrid format.
In an unusual twist, the three city councilors discussed their stands on the issue and voted on the ordinance before they allowed public comment from the audience. This was done to allow Councilwoman Cheryl Thibeault time to attend another meeting scheduled that night. It still seemed strange to hear the people who took the podium urge members of the committee to vote on something they already had voted on.
It also was an unusual meeting because the committee had voted just one week earlier to do the very same thing, recommend to the City Council that recreational cannabis not be allowed to be sold in Bristol.
The audience was much smaller Thursday night, perhaps 20 or so people attended, and only three speakers chose to address the committee at the end of the meeting.
One of the speakers was Bart Miley, the lawyer representing Trulieve, the corporation that currently runs the medical marijuana dispensary in Bristol. He expressed disappointment that the committee chose not to address the ordinance that was actually on the agenda, which dealt with the logistics and rules that would govern a cannabis establishment in Bristol but chose instead to propose a different ordinance that bans all recreational sales, including sales from a hybrid dispensary.
Miley also explained why the ordinance proposed by the committee would force Trulieve to relocate to another city. If Trulieve is not granted a hybrid license to sell medical and recreational marijuana in Bristol, then it is definitely going to be sold elsewhere.
He stated, “It’s very possible for the people who are current customers at the dispensary to go to another hybrid and simply make the purchases that we would have sold to them. We cannot do the same thing to the retail customers that are going to these other companies. So, we are at an enormous competitive disadvantage.”
Miley continued, “We really don’t believe that the dispensary model is something that will be sustainable in the future… because you’re going to be competing against hybrids who are doing the exact same thing that you are but with a much larger customer base and your costs are still the same.”
Trulieve’s representatives promised that they would be attending next week’s special City Council meeting that will be taking up the issue. They are going to propose to the full council that the hybrid model be reinstated in the proposed ordinance.
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