Rutland likely to vote on retail marijuana sales

RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) — Voters in Rutland will likely decide at Town Meeting in March whether to allow retail marijuana sales in their community when such sales become legal in Vermont next year.

The Select Board voted 4-0 this week to have the town attorney draft a ballot article, the Rutland Herald reported.

“I really think that the town should get in front of this in terms of benefits to the taxpayers that this type of authorization would provide,” said Selectman John Paul Faignant.

“There has been plenty of experience from our neighbors now down in Massachusetts and Maine, we know that retail establishments don’t bring out the worst in everybody like everybody feared,” he added.

This year, more than two dozen Vermont cities and towns held town meeting votes in March and most approved retail marijuana sales.