WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — About 30 residents Tuesday attended a public information session hosted by the Select Board about a proposed medical marijuana dispensary.

 

Some posed questions to applicant Silver Therapeutics of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

 

Most of the speakers appeared to aim their comments more at the Select Board members who next Monday plan to decide whether to give Silver the "letter of non-opposition" it needs in order to proceed with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's licensing process.

 

At issue is not so much the medical applications for the drug as the fact that Silver Therapeutics principal Joshua Silver makes no secret of the fact that he plans to seek a license from the commonwealth to operate a recreational pot retail operation at the same Colonial Plaza site where he wants to establish a medical dispensary.

 

After Silver and his team discussed the regulatory framework, the security provisions required by the commonwealth and the medical benefits of cannabis, the conversation quickly turned to the recreational side of the industry after Select Board Chairman Hugh Daley opened the floor for questions from the audience.

 

The comments from the floor were evenly divided, with about half expressing concern about the negative impact of a retail recreational pot facility and half pushing the board to support Silver's application with full knowledge that a medical dispensary license could give him an inside track for a recreational license.

 

Arguing against moving toward a recreational retail facility were several speakers who identified themselves as the mothers of young children.

 

"I don't want my kids seeing another way they can consume something that's going to take them out of reality," Sarah Currie said. "I don't understand how this will be beneficial to the town. I understand the medical use is very beneficial. I'm concerned about a retail facility and normalizing marijuana for my kids."

 

Silver told Currie that as the father of a 4-year-old and 7-year-old, he understands her concerns and worries. But he stressed that the outward appearance of his facility will not celebrate marijuana. His logo does not include a cannabis leaf, and he has no plan for the kind of "Green cross" insignia seen elsewhere in the country.

 

Currie asked Silver whether the presence of Williams College helped draw him to the town as a potential site for his business.

 

Silver said he was more attracted by the fact that the town is the closest large community to his home in Saratoga Springs and that 60 percent of Williamstown voters favored Proposition 4, the 2016 public question that decriminalized pot.

 

He said he obviously was familiar with the college, but as someone who graduated college before age 21 himself, he did not anticipate college students being a large portion of his potential market.

 

Silver did note that cultural institutions like the Clark Art Institute and North Adams' Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art attract the kind of visitors who might be interested in purchasing recreational pot -- a point that resident Valerie Hall seized on.

 

"I don't want Williamstown, on the border of two other states, to be attracting people here for marijuana," Hall said.

 

At least one speaker did challenge the Silver application based solely on marijuana's medical applications.

 

"At this juncture, none of my colleagues prescribes medical marijuana," said Dr. Marion Madden, a local internist who also distributed an eight-page handout with footnotes laying out some of the arguments against pot. "I've found that the patents I have who have a [medical marijuana I.D.] card … it is given out in the most cursory manner possible."

 

Silver's medical consultant, Dr. Robert Walker of Boston's MedWell Health and Wellness, took issue with that claim, pointing out that he authorizes cards after a thorough review of the patient's medical records and that marijuana is "not the drug of choice for anything … it's the drug of choice when all other options have been exhausted."

 

"There is a fair amount of scrutiny," Walker said. "When 20- and 21-year-olds come in complaining of back pain … they're not likely to get a card based on that. I had an 84-year-old woman who came in and said, 'I want to get off these damn opioids.' She was on three Oxycontins a day. Medical cannabis is one of the ways you can stop that."

 

But for the most part, the discussion -- pro and con -- centered on the recreational pot side of the equation.

 

A couple of residents noted that the town did vote in favor of decriminalizing the drug.

 

"We voted on medical marijuana a couple of years ago, and the town OK'd that," Planning Board member Amy Jeschawitz said. "Then we voted on recreational in the state election, and the town OK'd it. Then we discussed zoning at [2017] town meeting. Three times, our community has said we're OK with it. … It's never going to be 100 percent.

 

"But I think asking the community three times and getting the same answer three times should carry some weight."

 

John Strachan reminded the Select Board that legalized pot is not only the law in Massachusetts but a growing trend nationwide. And he said some community near the Village Beautiful is going to host a retail marijuana facility and reap the sales tax revenue; it may as well be Williamstown, and the town can put those revenues to use any way it sees fit, including "to use it for drug education on really harmful drugs."

 

Williamstown attorney Donald Dubendorf, who does not represent Silver Therapeutics in its application but who is a frequent petitioner before town boards and committees, offered a different spin on the "it's going to happen somewhere" argument.

 

"Given an imperfect world, I would much rather have both medical and recreational marijuana retailed here in our community where our zoning enforcement, our town manager and our police department can be on top if it," Dubendorf said.

 

"The choices aren't easy for [the Select Board]. They're not pure. There's not an easy choice for you. But I'd much prefer it to be here where I have more confidence in all those manners of enforcement."

 

Daley ended Tuesday's meeting by again asking residents with opinions for or against the medical dispensary application to send them to selectmen@williamstownma.gov.