FALL RIVER — Despite some protest from local residents and business owners, city health officials passed a set of regulations Wednesday that will limit some of the ways marijuana-related products are sold in the city.
The unanimous Board of Health vote will allow for limiting the sale of CBD edibles to only persons over the age of 21, prohibit the commercial gifting of marijuana, and restrict the sale of marijuana accessories to marijuana establishments and adult-use tobacco stores.
The vote represented one of the city’s first significant attempts to put any local regulations on Fall River’s burgeoning marijuana industry. As of Wednesday’s vote, one city dispensary is conducting recreational marijuana sales while two others are conducting medical sales. A total of 10 businesses are in some stage of opening a recreational marijuana dispensary, cultivation center or facility for processing marijuana products.
Limitation of CBD products, which contain the non-psychoactive chemical property cannabidiol, proved to be one of the biggest sticking points for residents against the proposed regulations. Laura Eaton, who operates the local CBD oil retailer Troy City Wellness, said limiting sales could hurt Fall River businesses like hers.
“There is no age restriction for pain, anxiety and depression,” she said. “CBD won’t hurt you. THC won’t hurt you. What will hurt all of us is over-regulation of a product that will help so many.”
Board Chairman Thomas Cory reassured speakers at Wednesday’s meeting that the board wasn’t trying to ban the sale of CBD products, but prevent them from being purchased by minors.
“The regulation we’re passing doesn’t prohibit the sale of CBD. It prohibits the sale of CBD to people less than 21 years old. You wouldn’t want someone who’s 15 years old self-medicating,” he said. I don’t want the child coming in and buying it.”
No one spoke in favor of retaining a business’s ability to dispense marijuana through commercial gifting, but some attendees had a problem with the language of the regulation regarding “marijuana accessories.” It was previously legal in Fall River for any store to gift a small amount of marijuana to a customer if they purchased a non-marijuana product.
Lal Mahaseth, who owns the Stop & Save convenience store on Rock Street, said he wasn’t opposed to using an age restriction for selling CBD products, but explained that many business owners in Fall River are confused as to whether or not the regulation will affect them.
“I am opposing the regulation but at the same time we need more time to understand this,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t even come today because they didn’t even know what this was for.”
The state’s Cannabis Control Commission defines marijuana accessories as “equipment, products, devices, or materials of any kind that are intended or designed for use in planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, harvesting, manufacturing, compounding, converting, producing, processing, preparing, testing, analyzing, packaging, repackaging, storing, containing, ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing cannabis or marijuana into the human body.”
Cheryl Sbarra, a senior staff attorney for the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards, noted that the confusion is further compounded by the fact that the commission’s description of marijuana accessories is nearly identical to the state’s definition of drug paraphernalia. However, she was one of the two people who spoke in support of the regulation Wednesday.
The other was Fall River Deputy Chief of Operations Wayne Furtado, who spoke at the meeting on behalf of Police Chief Albert Dupere.
“We feel that we are going to give our support to this recommendation. We believe it is proper to restrict the sale of marijuana accessories to marijuana establishments and adult-use tobacco stores,” he said, adding that the department supports the restriction of CBD product sales and eliminating commercial gifting.