Over 1200 activists from Acton showed up on Monday night, December 4th to vote overwhelmingly to ban Recreational Marijuana Commercial shops in Acton and for a temporary moratorium, which lasts until December of 2018. At the town meeting, 80% of Acton residents voted to pass the moratorium and 76% told the Board of Selectmen to put the question of a permanent ban on recreational marijuana shops in Acton on the ballot for November 6th, 2018. Before the vote, the majority of the Board of Selectmen were not in favor of a ban, but they now see clearly that the town has spoken. We will keep a close eye on the Acton Board of Selectmen and make sure the people of Acton get a chance to vote on November 6th, 2018.
What’s so encouraging about this overwhelming vote is that Acton was one of about 260 towns that voted FOR recreational marijuana in the fall of 2016. This is great news for those towns and cities that voted for recreational marijuana because it shows they can still win at town meeting to ban pot shops in their town or city.
Massachusetts Family Institute has made it a priority to partner with town and city grassroots organizations to ban pot shops in as many towns and cities as we can. This website shows which towns and cities have taken some kind of measure to restrict recreational marijuana as of November 30th, 2018. One city not listed is Bridgewater that has a robust grassroots organization working diligently to keep a current medical marijuana business from growing pot for recreational use.
If you are interested in learning more about how you can ban recreational pot in your town, please reach out to Michael King at michael@mafamily.org or call him at (978) 204-9131. To learn more about the dangers of pot to our youth, view the PowerPoint by Amy Turncliff, PhD here.