By Rick Wright

Staff Writer

The South Portland City Council will take a final vote Feb. 1 on a moratorium for establishing medical marijuana dispensaries in South Portland. 

The council scheduled a first reading of the proposal Wednesday following a discussion of the idea at a workshop Jan. 11.

“I favor a moratorium until we can get our situation established,” Coward said. “It makes sense to start out with a six-month moratorium.”

Maine voters approved a new medical marijuana law last fall that allows individuals diagnosed with “debilitating medical conditions” to acquire marijuana. Two weeks after the election, Gov. John Baldacci created a task force to determine how to implement the law, however, it has not yet issued its recommendations. 

The moratorium “is an emergency ordinance that, if enacted would provide staff with time to … address medical marijuana dispensaries,” City Manager Jim Gailey said in a written statement distributed at the workshop.

“I’m in favor of it [the moratorium],” Gailey said. ‘I’d rather take the time to think it through rather than rush it through.”

“A moratorium is not necessary,” said Councilor Rosemarie DeAngelis. “I don’t support that. To me, the moratorium is an overreaction. There’s bigger issues on our plate, There’s work that the state still needs to do.”

Pat Doucette, South Portland’s director of code enforcement, said she has received three or four inquiries from people asking where they can set up a dispensary. 

“We have no type of ordinance that will address it,” Doucette said. “We’re waiting for the state to make some decisions.” 

Doucette said she has not kept a record of the callers’ names or contact information because she needs more direction from the city and the state. 

“At this point, I don’t know where they can do it (locate dispensaries) because we don’t know what the state’s rules and regulations are going to be,” she said.

The only similar operation in South Portland is the Center For Behavioral Health, doing business as Discovery House on Western Avenue. Open since 1994, Discovery House is a state-licensed facility that dispenses methadone to people with opiate addictions, according to Nurse Manager Brian Brewer.

Gailey said he wasn’t sure Discovery House could serve as a good model for a medical marijuana dispensary. 

“I don’t have full knowledge of the establishment,” Gailey said. “I don’t know enough about the business.”

The law stipulates non-profit dispensaries are allowed to sell marijuana to qualified individuals if they obtain a registration certificate from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. The certificate is procured by submitting an application to the DHHS.

In addition to deciding if it wants to impose a moratorium, the council must determine where these dispensaries can be located. South Portland Planning and Development Director