BATH

Bath is just saying no to retail mariijuana establishments — for at least six months, anyway. Bath city councilors approved second passage of a six-month moratorium on retail marijuana establishments on Wednesday, following similar actions in other Maine

communities.

“(This is about) alerting potential business owners that this isn’t something that’s allowed right now,” said Andrew Deci, director of Planning & Development. “This is a pause period on these types of activities taking place in our community.”

Deci argued that the ordinance was necessary due to the fact that the state has been unable to create regulations for the sale of recreational marijuana, even though voters approved a referendum to legalize it back in the fall of 2016.

“We are not ready yet to establish our local rules because of this sort of hold up at the state level,” he said.

The city council can choose to extend it at the end of that period, or cut it short if rules are ready to be put in place before the sixth months are up.

Rep. Jennifer DeChant, D-Bath, concurred with Deci’s statements, adding that she was confident that marijuana regulation would be heading into the rulemaking process by April 18, the end of the current legislative session. Still, that would leave several months before the regulations would be ready.

“Best case scenario, it would be able to hit the ground in January of 2019,” she said.

The council approved second passage of the ordinance unanimously, with Councilor Terry Nordmann abstaining. Nordmann had argued against the measure at the previous city council meeting, but stated that he didn’t want to stand opposed to a united council.

The moratorium will go into effect 21 days from its passage.

nstrout@timesrecord.com