ST. JOHNSBURY — Voters voted narrowly this week to allow retail marijuana operations in town, with a possible start date in October 2022.
St. Johnsbury residents voted 785 to 754 in favor of allowing retail marijuana sales during the annual town meeting, which is normally held in March but was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I knew it was going to be close,” Town Manager Chad Whitehead said. From conversations with residents, he said, he could tell people were split on the issue.
“I really had no idea which way it was going to fall,” he said.
The vote this week is a milestone for marijuana proponents in the area. The Caledonia County town is the largest municipality in the Northeast Kingdom, where six other towns voted in March to allow marijuana shops in their communities.
Voters in Barton, Brownington, Burke, Danville, Peacham and Sutton approved marijuana measures on Town Meeting Day — almost a third of the communities statewide that opted in on allowing retail marijuana sales that day. Under Act 164, municipal approval is a prerequisite for local pot retail ventures.
Two other large municipalities in the Kingdom — Lyndon and Newport — shot down marijuana measures last month. The margin in Newport was just 20 votes.
Earlier this year, advocates for retail weed argued the new industry could represent a turning point for the region’s beleaguered economy.
“If we at least get our feet in the door, we could be first in something for a change,” Andrew Swett, owner of Evansville Trading Post and an aspiring cannabis retailer, said in January.
Whitehead isn’t sure how the decision might benefit St. Johnsbury.
“I don’t know if it’s something that will position ourselves to draw in industry or marijuana tourism, so to speak,” he said. “It’s widely approved in so many other places already.”
But Peacham resident Devon Deyhle thinks St. Johnsbury now has another avenue for business growth.
“I have a feeling that if it was advocated for properly and implemented properly … St. Johnsbury could possibly renovate itself and pick itself up out of the ashes that it’s currently smoldering in,” he said.
Deyhle, a stonemason, pitched the idea of opening a pot shop in town to selectboard members last fall. In November, he told local officials he wanted to see the question put to the voters, according to the Caledonian Record.
The town is at the junction of two major highways, Interstates 91 and 93, Deyhle said. He thinks St. Johnsbury could capitalize on visitors traveling north for outdoor recreation hotspots, such as Kingdom Trails in Burke.
He said he is proud St. Johnsbury voters approved the measure despite relatively little campaigning on his part. Had he done more to promote the initiative, he thinks, the margin might have been wider — though he concedes that a campaign might have drummed up stronger opposition, too.
Deyhle said he hopes to open a retail cannabis business in the next year or two. The application for retail licenses will be open for 30 days starting on or before Sept. 1, 2022, according to Act 164.
