LISBON

Lisbon Town Councilors Tuesday unanimously rejected the planning board’s proposed medical marijuana ordinance regulating placement of dispensaries in town.

The proposal would allow only one medical marijuana dispensary to be established within Lisbon, and only in the commercial and industrial districts.

It also limited to the commercial and industrial districts places where primary caregivers can cultivate medical marijuana for two to five registered patients.

Councilor grappled with how to grandfather in existing cultivation operations prohibited by the pro- posed ordinance.

The council voted in favor of the proposed ordinance at a first reading Dec. 6 to allow a public hearing.

Planning board member Don Fellows said Tuesday the intention was to address collective cultivation operations in the same facility. The board learned from a recent case settled in York.

“That case determined that medical marijuana, effectively commercial uses, were appropriately considered manufacturing and that’s what this town’s codes enforcement officer has been doing all along,” Fellows said.

Councilor Chris Brunelle opposed the ordinance, arguing that rules are all going to change following the state referendum Nov. 8 to legalize recreational marijuana use. Once those rules come into place, the town can talk about regulating recreational use.

Local caregivers argued there are many people in town legally and quietly growing medicinal marijuana in their homes and delivering to patients.

Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine Trade Association President Catherine Lewis said there are 40,000- 45,000 licensed medical marijuana patients in Maine, and approximately 3,000 caregivers across the state.

Lewis stressed that MMCM is working with the state to protect the medical marijuana program.

“The medical patients that are truly using this as medicine are still going to need the hand-holding, they’re still going to need the tested product, they’re going to need the non-smokable forms. They’re going to need the capsules, the tinctures, the suppositories; they need things that are customized to their conditions,” she said.

There will be caregivers switching to the recreational side, Lewis said. They will need to apply for a retail license, recreational grow license or a social club, “and building the ordinances around that is going to be very important for every community.”

She urged councilors to protect their medical marijuana caregivers and their patients, because those patients are not going away. They include cancer patients, the elderly, children with seizures and veterans with post traumatic stress syndrome.

Council Chairman Allan Ward said the town has looked at a moratorium for recreational use, but said passing a moratorium now ordinance would be premature.

dmoore@timesrecord.com