WEST SPRINGFIELD — Mayor Will Reichelt has called for delaying implementation of the state's new recreational marijuana law to give West Springfield time to plan and craft zoning changes necessary to accommodate the regulations.
Question 4, the Nov. 8 election ballot measure to legalize, tax and regulate pot for recreational use, won statewide approval by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent. In West Springfield, however, voters opposed it 52 percent to 48 percent.
Recreational pot use, including the retail sale of the drug, "raises novel and complex legal, planning and public safety issues and the town needs time to study such issues," Reichelt, an attorney, said in a letter to the West Springfield Town Council explaining his rationale for the moratorium.
