NORTHAMPTON — Angry and frustrated residents packed the Florence Civic Center on Wednesday evening ready to fight a proposed marijuana dispensary at the intersection of Main and Maple streets, urging Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra not to sign a host community agreement with Euphorium LLC.
One after another, residents — who were told that only written questions submitted in advance would be answered — interrupted cannabis consultant Ezra Parzybok’s presentation to air concerns about the number of children who regularly walk past the location, the proximity to mental health crisis and substance abuse treatment programs, and the uncertain impact on parking options for other nearby businesses.
Father-son team Marco and Richard Aranzullo run Euphorium LLC and plan to open the recreational dispensary if Sciarra agrees. They chose the site for a variety of reasons, Marco Aranzullo said, like the fact that Northampton allows a dispensary to open there by right and it would be the nearest shop for residents of the Hilltowns.
“This is not the primary, first spot he chose. This is what works,” Parzybok explained.
“It’s a democracy. If people don’t want it, it shouldn’t be forced down their throats,” MurDuff’s Jewelry owner Kurt Brazeau told the Gazette, saying Sciarra should not sign an agreement. “I don’t want to open a business where I’m not wanted. It’s not good for business. It’s not logical. And it’s my personal belief that it’s the city’s job to represent the people.”
Brazeau disagreed with others who said there would not be enough parking for Florence Center’s needs, saying instead that he wonders if there will be enough customers for Euphorium to stay afloat. Parzybok had said he counted 22 empty on-street spaces on a recent day and that Euphorium’s proposed site has a parking lot.
The interjections at times turned into arguments among attendees who disagreed on key topics, and residents peppered Parzybok, the Aranzullos and Euphorium’s attorney Isaac Fleisher with questions throughout. Around two hours into the meeting, a man stood up and criticized the Aranzullos for hiring Pazybok, who had earlier acknowledged that his backyard growing operation was raided by law enforcement in 2015. He was not convicted of any crimes.
“What I was doing was illegal. I was arrested. What’s your point?” Parzybok said, to which the man responded that the Aranzullos should hire someone else.
“Was it right back then that cannabis was illegal? Not necessarily,” Marco Aranzullo said. “If I gauged everybody in my life that did something with cannabis and got arrested for it, I’d lose quite a few friends. You can laugh at it, and it may not make sense, but you can judge a lot of different people.”
After holding a state-mandated community outreach meeting behind the proposed site on Aug. 15, Euphorium held a second community meeting Wednesday to make up for the fact that the lack of a sound system and a dearth of seating led to complaints from residents who felt unheard at the last meeting.
Parzybok presented scientific research and statistics to respond to concerns from residents that the presence of a dispensary could cause an increase in usage among local children. In addition to disputing that point with data, he noted that adults in Massachusetts are allowed to grow marijuana in their own homes and that regulations from the Department of Public Health were enacted in 2012.
“I believe that the full legalization and normalization of cannabis will provide a net benefit to communities,” he said. “We’ve had 100 years in this state where it’s been illegal and that hasn’t worked.”
He reiterated that the state’s Cannabis Control Commission sets the standards for marketing, packaging and building design, and those regulations are written to avoid appealing to children or exposing them to danger. Words including marijuana and associated slang are banned, and so are neon colors and cartoon mascots.
Dispensaries, he said, “attract law-abiding adults with disposable income” who are likely to shop at other businesses, as well.
Parzybok also compared the way society treats alcohol to the way it treats marijuana, noting that package stores allow children inside with their parents, but dispensaries do not let anyone under 21 inside at any hour, even when they’re closed. He showed a photo of a toy truck emblazoned with a Budweiser logo and said a regulated cannabis business in Massachusetts could never offer a similar product.
If Sciarra signs the host community agreement, Euphorium will undergo a final state review process that takes three to four months.
Residents have also asked the City Council to place a cap on the number of dispensaries that are allowed to open in Northampton, which has 12 operating at present. No formal proposal has been put forth so far.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.