Revere City Council votes 7-4 in favor of retail pot shop ballot question

Advocate Staff Report

For the past couple of years, the City Council has been mulling over the idea of repealing the city’s prohibition of recreational marijuana shops. This week they took a major step toward opening the door to cannabis businesses in Revere and voted to place a nonbinding question on the ballot to gauge how the community feels about marijuana shops.

Ward 2 Councillor Ira Novoselsky presented the motion for a nonbinding ballot question. “At this time, we owe it to the city to hear from them,” said Novoselsky, adding that a vote would be the best way to understand community sentiment.

“It’s time we get the whole city together to see where we want to go,” he said.

Novoselsky said that eight years ago, when Revere banned recreational marijuana, nobody knew that much about it. He said the mood toward marijuana has since changed. Novoselsky also stressed the potential revenue from marijuana and said the city is scraping for funding to avoid layoffs and scrounging for money to pay for the new high school. “This should go on the ballot,” he said.

But not all councillors agreed. Councillor-at-Large Robert Haas said that most of the residents he’s heard from have concerns about marijuana shops. “The majority of people, about 75 percent, who I speak to aren’t in favor of bringing pot shops to the city,” said Haas, adding that residents are worried about shops on Squire Road or in the Popeye’s location. Haas added that most of his constituents are young families and seniors.

Ward 5 Councillor Angela Guarino-Sawaya agreed that the community should make the decision, but she didn’t support a ballot question in November. According to Guarino-Sawaya, the turnout for a non-mayoral election will be low and a marijuana ballot question would not reflect the will of the whole city.

Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio said it should go on the ballot, and even if the turnout is low at least the council will have some indication about how residents feel.

Ward 3 Councillor Anthony Cogliandro said residents seem split 50/50 on the question of recreational marijuana shops. But Cogliandro supported a ballot question. “I believe people should have a say,” he said.

But Councillor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto opposed the motion, saying that health reports on marijuana have been devastating. “It didn’t go the way people expected it to go,” he said. “I don’t support any way of bringing it back here. I believe it’s truly detrimental and really bad for people’s health. I can’t support this.”

City Council President Marc Silvestri supported the idea of a ballot question. “I don’t see a better way than allowing it to go to the residents and letting them decide,” he said.

As for suggestions that the revenue from the marijuana industry might not be everything the city expects, Silvestri said that any amount of money marijuana shops bring into the city is more than the money being brought in currently.

The council voted 7-4 in favor of a ballot question with Councillors Haas, Guarino-Sawaya and Zambuto and Councillor-at-Large Michelle Kelley voting against it.