Retail Recreational Marijuana on Trenton's Agenda: Will it Bloom or Wither?
TRENTON—Retail marijuana may be coming to Trenton if a proposed ordinance initiated by some of the town’s residents passes the voters at either the Trenton town meeting in May or a special town meeting prior to that.
Ellis and Carole Batson gathered 122 signatures of Trenton voters and brought the ordinance to the town office on November 8. This past Tuesday, the Trenton Select Board referred the potential ordinance to the town’s planning board for a public hearing. The board will also recommend if the ordinance should or should not pass. The select board members discussed whether to have legal review of the ordinance.
The proposed new town code would allow the licensing of “up to two adult-use marijuana stores in the town of Trenton.”
As written, the proposal requires that if a licensed store is sold, the “prospective purchaser shall be given preference to obtain a new license” within 60 days. All stores would have to do business at permanent locations and would be able to take phone and internet orders if the buyer pays and retrieves the orders at the physical store site. There can be no drive-throughs or vending machines.
The town would provide the application for license. There is a proposed $250 processing fee for that application and then a $1,250 store license fee. The store could only be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Security would include constantly operating surveillance cameras, intrusion alert systems, and secure locked containers for storage as well as deadbolts on exterior doors and access points and external wall illumination.
Locally, Southwest Harbor allows retail marijuana sales at Meristem, which opened in 2021. It is Hancock County’s only retail recreational medical marijuana shop. Bar Harbor voters turned down a 2022 proposal that would have allowed recreational retail shops in the town. The Bar Harbor Town Council had been worried about lack of restrictions and transferable licenses.
Though Hancock County only hosts one retail storefront option for those who do not need medical marijuana, there are over 200 stores in Maine that are applying for licenses or currently have licenses.
In October 2024, the state reported almost $21 million in retail sales from just under 400,000 transactions. The average price for a gram of marijuana was up two cents in October (over the year) at $7.29.
In 2023 there was $216,933,453 in retail sales of marijuana. That was up from just over $4 million in 2020, and then approximately $82 million in 2021.
For any retail store in Trenton, the first step is getting the use allowed.
“You’re still going to have to have the planning board involved in it because they’re going to have to hold a public hearing,” said Select Board Chair Fred Ehrlenbach.
“Ellsworth just went through this though they didn’t have an ordinance proposed,” Ehrlenbach said.
This November, Ellsworth voters supported allowing retail recreational marijuana stores, 2,291 to 1,874. That ballot question came from the city’s councilors.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Maine Government Data about Adult-Use Retail sales of marijuana
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If you want the workforce to shrink , legalization is the way to go.