Former Danbury Mayor Speaks Out About Recreational Marijuana in CT
On most Friday mornings, the Ethan and Lou Show reaches out to former Danbury mayor, Mark Boughton who currently works in the Lamont administration as the Commissioner of the Department of Revenue Services.
Even though Mark works in Hartford, he still keeps his finger on the pulse of what's happening in Danbury, which is why Lou and I invite him on the air and because he's become a trusted friend, and he's funny.
This past Friday, we asked for his take on recreational marijuana in Connecticut, focusing on the dispensaries that will begin to pop up in the spring of 2022. Here's what he told us when we asked him about how he would handle recreational pot in Danbury if he were still the mayor.
"I would certainly allow the sale of recreational marijuana. I don't have a major issue with it. It's a nice little financial hit for the city or town if you host a retail facility, you get 3% of the sales tax"
He had heard the town of Ridgefield was laying down the groundwork to ban dispensaries. We asked him to weigh in on that proposal. Here's what he told us;
"People are going to bring it into Ridgefield, and you can't stop someone from delivering it to Ridgefield. Say there's a dispensary in Danbury, there's an Uber service that can drive into Ridgefield and deliver their product. You can override your local community by getting 10% of the voters' signatures and have a referendum and possibly overturn the town's decision."
Mark then treated us to a personal anecdote about his visit to a dispensary in Massachusetts. Check it out;
"I wanted to see what these shops were like and how they handle it. One of the owners was kind enough to let me stand next to the counter where business was being transacted. I was chuckling about the weed counselors. They're like wine connoisseurs describing how the bud grows, and let me tell you this; you cannot help but get buzzed in a recreational pot shop because of the smell."
You can listen in to the former Mayor of Danbury, Mark Boughton, when he joins the Ethan and Lou Show most Fridays at 8:20 AM.