City councilors Gladys Lebron-Martinez and Rebecca Lisi will hold a Ward 1 neighborhood meeting on April 20 at 6 p.m. at Kelly School on a proposal to put a medical marijuana facility at 28 Appleton St.
Representatives of GTI Massachusetts NP Corp., which wants to open the medical marijuana cultivation and processing facility, will be available at the meeting at 216 West St. to answer questions, said Lebron-Martinez, the Ward 1 representative on the City Council.
Lisi, a councilor at large, said that state Rep. Aaron M. Vega, D-Holyoke, is scheduled to attend the meeting to provide information about a bill he filed in the Massachusetts House of Representatives that could help with jobs. The bill would erase criminal records of anyone who had been arrested or imprisoned for marijuana-law violations, in light of the relaxing of laws around marijuana use and possession.
Giving such people clean records could help them get jobs they currently could be barred from at a medical marijuana facility and at other places, Lisi said.
In the first year, GTI’s facility would employ 25 to 30 people in full-time jobs at $14 an hour with benefits. That would increase to 100 employees in three years, GTI representatives said.
The meeting on April 20 is geared to Ward 1 but the public in general is invited, Lisi said.
“We just want to invite the public to come,” Lebron-Martinez said in announcing the neighborhood meeting on Wednesday.
GTI Massachusetts has applied to the City Council for a special permit to run the medical marijuana cultivation and processing facility.
The City Council’s review includes a public hearing being conducted by its Ordinance Committee. The hearing began March 28 and continues at 7 p.m. on April 25 at City Hall.
The facility planned for the second floor of a building in a general industry zoning district would be cultivation and processing only, GTI officials said.Massachusetts voters in 2012 permitted medical marijuana facilities by approving a statewide ballot question, and state law prohibits a city or town from banning such facilities. But the city can regulate where such a facility can be located and require that the permit-holder disclose security measures and discuss issues like hours of operation.
Marijuana can be prescribed medically to treat cancer, glaucoma, HIV-AIDS and other illnesses.
credit:420intel.com
