Seven marijuana dispensaries in Great Barrington are just too many. Why? Well, we really don’t want our town to be identified as the pot capital of the Berkshires. I was once quoted in an article in Smithsonian Magazine about Great Barrington, which, it said, was the best small town in America. I cited a lot of reasons for wanting to live in the town, but what I love about it the most is the balance. I love the fact that we have ice cream shops and toy stores and playgrounds for kids to play in. I have always argued that marijuana should be legal and that it should be sold and taxed and kept out of the black market. I am proud that Great Barrington is the place where some people come to get their pot and pot derivatives. But there are dangers. If we get known as the pot capital and the horse racing capital, we are sure to attract those who will not add to the reputation of the town.
The matter came before the selectboard of Great Barrington and once again, town officialdom failed the test, with the exception of my hero, Leigh Davis. Like me, Leigh has nothing against recreational marijuana but thinks that there is real danger of too much in the wrong places. Leigh has been on the right side of so many issues on which the other selectpersons have either been wrong or silent. I speak specifically of the Lake Mansfield Road and horse racing at the fairgrounds.
Now she is singlehandedly making the right arguments about the potential proliferation of pot dispensaries. She wants to restrict their placement in the town proper. I like the fact that the one shop we have, Theory Wellness, is not in the center of town. We know that the people who want to locate their shops in the middle of town would do so for the foot traffic. That is the last thing we need, what with all our children wandering around. Meanwhile, those who want open season on pot are arguing that liquor found in liquor stores causes more deaths than marijuana will ever cause. But by now, liquor stores are part of the fabric of the town. Great Barrington is not and will never be known as the liquor capital of the Northeast. It’s just not the same.
Leigh Davis also points to the already huge problem with parking in Great Barrington. You can hardly find a parking space now. More dispensaries will make an already bad problem even worse. It’s not easy to cross our streets now. We have some tricky crossings and too few lights. We already have accidents, but you haven’t seen anything yet.
Right now, there are lots of vacant stores. We have a pretty good idea why they are vacant. The people who own them may well be waiting for the pot people to come along and rent. Once these units are rented, more pressure will be placed on other stores to raise their rents.
Leigh Davis also makes the point that, like other small towns, Great Barrington has always fought drugs getting into the hands of teenagers. Once the town becomes the pot capital, it will become a place that young people will gravitate to. This will not be the first time that the town has had that problem.
So where are the town selectpersons? There are some who suspect that this is all about only grubbing tax receipts for the town. I don’t want to get into the anti-marijuana arguments here, but there are some very good experts who believe that adolescent brains can be harmed by weed.
We are so lucky to have Leigh Davis as a selectperson. We need more like her. Now!