Community Corner

Middletown Council Approves Medical Marijuana Grow Facility Lease

Greenbelt Management of Fairfield hopes to build its production facility in a 15,000-square-foot area of the Remington Rand building.

After passionate arguments on both sides, the Middletown Common Council approved a lease for a medical marijuana production facility to be built in a city-owned building on Monday 6-3.

The lease with Fairfield-based Greenbelt Management at 180 Johnson Street — the former Remington Rand warehouse — is contingent on the firm being awarded one of the three to 10 licenses that would be issued by the state Department of Consumer Protection. 

Principal partner of Greenbelt Jason Nickerson was "thrilled" with the passage and admitted to being unsure of how councilors would vote on the matter. "I was on the edge of my seat a little bit. We had other backup plans in mind, but I'd really like it to be in Middletown," he said.

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He pointed to a meeting Aug. 27 in which he was optimistic about moving toward getting a production license from the state.

Republican councilors Linda Salafia, Phil Pessina and Joseph Bibisi voted against the resolution. Pessina, referring to his 40 years in law enforcement, said he was "standing on principle."

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"I'm not truly convinced ... that medical marijuana does what it does," Pessina said. Referring to a police officer he knew who was dying of cancer, he said, "he stood on his deathbed and he fought against this drug and he did not take marijuana to ease his pain and suffering because he stood on principle."

Councilman Todd Berch, who co-sponsored the resolution, was adamant. "The issue is: are we going to be leasing the building? The principal itself has already been battled in the state house, both chambers. In Washington, the same thing. That's not our fight."

He likened the lease approval consideration to a firm asking to manufacture poker chips, saying, "gambling's not legal."

"Our fight is the legality of the issue of leasing a building to somebody that is abiding by state regulations."

Bibisi, speaking directly to Greenbelt parties in the audience, said, "If you were growing tomatoes, I'd vote for you tomorrow."

Meanwhile, Councilman Robert Santangelo, himself a drug and alcohol counselor who supported the measure, said, "if a substance is being sold legally with a prescription, it's medicine, and if it's being sold in a back alley somewhere, it's a drug."

He pointed to folks who have had novocaine at the dentist, adding that those who are injected with this local anesthetic would test positive for trace amounts of cocaine in a drug test.

During the public comment session, Ryan Kennedy and Ken McClellan voiced their concerns with the issue. McClellan said he was disappointed to see the medical marijuana issue on the agenda again

"It's disappointing to see the city involved as an accessory to a federal crime. Federal law supercedes state law," he said. 

Kennedy said he was disturbed with the city owning the Remington Rand building and leasing it to Greenbelt, explaining that private business owners with similarly large facilities would not have a chance to have their building occupied.

Earlier in the evening, during the questions to the directors portion of the meeting, Middletown Police Chief William McKenna said the crime rate at the Remington Rand building was low, citing a woman's death last October and the theft last week of $20,000 worth of equipment from a storage area at the Remington Rand building.

McKenna said officers on the North End beat conducted routine property checks at the building during their shift and perhaps down the line the installation of city cameras at this city-owned building might be in order.


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