For the voting members of our community, it is often hard to have a firm grasp on who the politicians that represent us are and what they do. In this installment of Politipress, I review the most recent Wayland Town Meeting and what it accomplished.

Wayland held a 10-topic town meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 13 in the Wayland High School field house. The topic list was headlined by Topic 7: a zoning law that would prohibit recreational marijuana establishments. The town meeting passed the measure, restricting any dispensaries from opening in Wayland.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts legalized recreational marijuana in Nov. 2016 by way of a ballot question. Wayland citizens barely voted in the affirmative for recreational weed two years ago. We passed the ballot question by 79 votes, a margin of one percent, 50.5 to 49.5.

Wayland citizens, especially parents, then became concerned as to how marijuana would affect our town and youth. The motion of a moratorium on recreational marijuana passed quickly. Soon after, Waylanders adopted a zoning law, and debate about the prohibition ensued.

In order to pass the zoning law, the state of Massachusetts requires both an election on the measure and a town meeting. On Oct. 2, Wayland passed the law in a special election. Unofficial results displayed the margin as 1,226 in support of prohibiting dispensaries, and 465 against the prohibition. Wayland had made it past step one of the two-step process. At the town meeting, Wayland passed the zoning law, 549 for and 97 against, thus prohibiting recreational marijuana shops in Wayland.

Another big vote from the meeting was the denial of allocating $1.5 million for a new grass field at Loker Elementary School. Additionally, Wayland voters passed over Topic 10, which would’ve prohibited unholstered firearms in public and the discharging of a firearm within 1000 feet of the nearest dwelling.

So ends the saga of Wayland and weed. Adults looking to purchase recreational marijuana will have to be content with visiting one of the potential six shops to be found next door in Framingham.

Opinion articles written by staff members represent their personal views. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent WSPN as a publication.