Milo updates cannabis licensing ordinance

MILO — Moving forward, the town of Milo will have one license for a recreational cannabis business and another for a medical cannabis establishment per the cannabis licensing establishment ordinance. Ordinance amendments were approved at a special town meeting on Monday evening.

“Essentially the major change on this is that right now our ordinance calls for two recreational and we are changing that to be one recreational and one medical,” Select Chair Paula Copeland said. 

There are two types of cannabis businesses and recreational cannot sell medical products and medical cannabis stores can only sell a limited number of recreational products so the select board felt a change was needed, Copeland said.

“As anything when it’s new, the changes come fast and furious in the beginning,” she said, with town ordinances needing to be adjusted with time.

The town currently has GreenLife Milo on Park Street and no medical cannabis establishments – Milo had previously never voted to opt in for medical. Another recreational business is in the process of gaining its state license and if granted it would be grandfathered as the application was submitted prior to the ordinance amendment.

Milo would have then two recreational cannabis stores and if one were to relinquish its license then the number would go down to one and remain as such.

The select board discussed numbers and settled on one of each.

The town is in close proximity to other communities with cannabis businesses, Selectperson Lee McMannus said. “Having two or three of each would make for some stiff competition and I would like to think somebody opening a business would at least have an opportunity to make some money,” he said.

One recreational and one medical is also based on population and trying to avoid oversaturation, Selectperson Tony Heal said. Business owners in other industries have commented on difficulties in trying to make money, he said.