Talking Points on Repealing Chapter 351 Zoning Exclusion

(provided by MassCann, a division of NORML)

1. The Law Allows and Encourages Farmers to Grow Marijuana but Zones Farms Out of the
Industry – This MUST CHANGE! The legislature enacted Chapter 55 – in 2017 - which
orders the Cannabis Control Commission to create procedures and policies, in cooperation
with the department of agricultural resources, to “…promote and encourage full participation
in the regulated marijuana industry by farmers.”

2. The Zoning exclusion in Chapter 40A was passed With NO Debate! Chapter 351 of 2016, which
amends the Right to Farm (MGL Chapter 40A), was passed in an informal session attended by
only 7 legislators, and no roll-call vote, after rightfully dying in committee. It died because it was
a bad law and set a bad precedent: allowing an exception to the Right to Farm. It was
resurrected to serve as a vehicle for the political maneuver that delayed the implementation of
the ballot question initiative which legalized adult use cannabis in the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts.

3. The Zoning Exclusion Harms Farmers! Chapter 351 inserts an exclusion into Chapter 40A (the
right to farm law) that states that the right to farm does not include the right to farm marijuana.
This is in direct contradiction to Chapter 55, which explicitly gives farmers the right to
participate in the new billion-dollar cannabis industry as Craft Marijuana Cultivator
Cooperatives.

4. Farmers who want to become Craft Cultivators risk losing their farm status because of the
zoning exclusion! Most of the towns have zoned for cannabis cultivation have put the overlays in
industrial zones. Farmers wishing to apply for licenses to cultivate as Craft Marijuana
Cultivators are being asked to give up their APR status and have their land rezoned as industrial
in some of these towns. In other towns, they are being denied licenses because the towns have
zoned against them. To comply with the zoning restrictions, they would have to purchase or
lease buildings in the industrial zone and outfit them for indoor cultivation. No farmer can
afford to do this, and no farmer should be required to. The purpose of the law was to give
farmers a valuable new crop that could enhance their business and help keep farmers farming.

5. The Zoning exclusion is Costing Massachusetts Farmers a Billion Dollar Crop! Farmers stand to
greatly benefit from the Cannabis industry, but only if their towns allow them to participate. The
Department of Revenue is conservatively estimating the retail market will reach a billion dollars
by the year 2020 in the Commonwealth alone and a farmer with 3000 square feet planted in
cannabis can easily gross $150,000 in one season alone. This can mean the difference between a
bad crop year shutting down the farm and a single year’s crop paying for a child’s college
education. Farmers who wish to, deserve the right to enter this marketplace that the legislature
has already granted them. Farmers, and farmers alone, should be able to decide how they will
run their farms. This is why chapter 40A was passed in the first place: to preserve the family
farm.