Business & Tech

Middletown Readers Speak Out: A Pot Factory in Your Neighborhood?

After the city approved a lease with Fairfield-based Greenbelt Management, the owner is hoping to become one of three medical marijuana producers granted a license under the state's new acquisition process.

The prospect of a medical marijuana grower moving into Middletown's city-owned biz incubation property in the North End has become quite a talker on Facebook.

We posed the question to residents after our story about Fairfield-based Greenbelt Management, who hopes to become one of three medical marijuana producers granted a license under the state's new acquisition process.

The business plans to set up shop at Middletown's Remington Rand former typewriter and bicycle factory and is in the final stages of preparing its application ahead of Connecticut's Department of Consumer Protection deadline of Nov. 15.

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Here's what you said. Do you agree or have thoughts of your own you'd like to share with our readers? Tell us in the comments section below.

Carolyn: So the City of Middletown will benefit in the way of rent from a medical marijuana plant? Something just doesn't seem right about that.

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Fred: Bad enough to benefit from cigarettes and booze, eh?

John: Maybe Greenbelt can give some of their product to our local politicians!

David: 1) the city shouldn't be in the landlord biz to begin with 2) how can we preach don't do drugs to the kids when the city is saying grow grow grow. This is wrong on so many levels.

Carolyn: I agree David. And we all know that the government has not relaxed laws concerning these drugs, but the authorities are turning and looking the other way. Is the city on the hook as the landlord of a facility such as this IF something goes terribly wrong? Wrong on so many levels.

Fred: Yeah, why doesn't the city just Do What It Does Best and SELL THE PROPERTY FOR ONE DOLLAR?

Mark: Within a couple years every town will have growing facilities, at least the progressive ones. The war on drugs is a joke and it seems like 50 percent of kids are on prescribed meds which I think is more dangerous than marijuana. Look at the countries that have decriminalized "soft" drugs. So many issues we face have become non-issues there.

Christine: OK, Mark, so the city should be on the cutting edge. We'll be in the history books as one of the first cities to grow pot before it was legal. What a claim to fame. Tell me, what will our motto be? "Still making mistakes"?

Heather: Hey Christine, would your point of view be the same if applied to say, oh, civil rights? When I had bacterial meningitis, I was prescribed pain pills for the excruciating pain the illness caused me. They not only failed to numb the pain but also exacerbated the effects of the illness — nausea, inability to sleep, no appetite, sore and achy bones. Guess what I did instead? I. Smoked. Marijuana. I broke the law. But I was also INSTANTLY able to keep food down, sleep, and eat without any pain. 

Ian: Did anyone else notice that this pot-growing facility is in a Drug-Free School Zone? It'd be a serious crime for a CIVILIAN to possess/grow cannabis in that area, but if the town is making money off it, I guess it's ok?

Bob: Ian, Drug/Gun Free Zones should be next on the repeal list. No need for either designation in a free society.

William: This should be in a privately owned building and not one owned by the City of Middletown.

Ian: We can teach our kids that alcohol and tobacco are for adults only, why are we incapable of doing that with cannabis? Alcohol causes thousands of drunk driving deaths a year. Should we ban it? Oh wait, we tried that and it failed miserably.

Robert: Clearly you can't educate people on something that is a fabricated problem and expect it to go away, or not educate and expect discipline to improve. Dare programs need to be shut down alongside of the drug free zones. And shooting sports like archery and air-rifle/.22 training need to be re-started.

Darrell: They roast coffee beans in the same building. Nobody complains about that "drug". Now I know it's apples and oranges but what if a company was manufacturing "hospital" drugs in the same spot. It's a small business that's breaking into a new market and the purpose of the city building is to help business grow and possibly move to a larger facility in the Middletown area (hopefully).

Bob: Go for it, Middletown. Get in on the ground floor of what's eventually going to become a big, legal business: Medical Marijuana. Get with the program!

Lawrence: Just wished they would lower the initial $2mil in escrow to start one.

Robert: So here's the REAL driving force behind this medical marijuana attempted takeover of our PURE little town.

Chris: When they have the Grand Opening will they be giving out free samples?!?!

Mark: Need another cupcake shop up there. Just take a ride on "high" St. To the non-believers it's more of the same, to those whom have seen there dishwashers go to jail for having a joint on them and the absurdity of the court system and complete waste of taxpayer money to pay the cops to race around chasing skateboarders.

Robert: 400,000 people die each year, in the U.S. alone, from tobacco-related diseases. 30,000 from drivers drunk on alcohol. How many from pot smokers?
Christine, Heather, first off, I'm sorry you had to go through that. But if it's OK for a municipality, can I grow some in my garden? I simply don't think a municipality should promote this until it is legalized.

Kurt: It's nice to see that lovely old pile of bricks in the North end get some more tenants. They will be engaged in a legal business, at least on the state level, so why not?

Robert: Growing medical marijuana IS legalized, at least at the state level. And present federal prosecutorial policy is not to go after licensed growers in state's which permit that. So why shouldn't Middletown be on the cutting edge? As for chemo, some people get so nauseous on chemo that sometimes the only thing which ends or reduces the nausea is smoking pot.

Christine: If I had a medical condition that would be helped by Marijuana, could a private citizen get a license if they had medical documentation? If, say, my insurance wouldn't cover the med, and/or I couldn't afford the drug or co-pay? I'm not joking around, I'd just like to know.

Rachel: Pretty soon we WILL be able to grow it in our back yards! You already can in a few states. I have a high school-aged friend that I wish smoked pot instead of the psych drugs she is on for anxiety.

Christine: If they have proper security at the plant and safety @ the plant it shouldn't be an issue..if anything people should know eyes will be on that place and safety shouldn't be an issue.

Kimberly: if you have a MMJ card... no where does it state on the state's web page anything about personally growing it. You are allowed to have 2.5 ounces in your possession (a month supply). It doesn't say if you are allowed to grow X amount of plants but it also doesn't say you can't. Most states do allow growing for personal use with MMJ card  around 12 plants but it varies from state to state but plants should be "staggered growing" so that you have a constant supply and so that you don't have more than the allotted amount at harvest. 

Robert: Remember William F. Buckley Jr., the TV host of Firing Line and editor of National Review? When his housekeeper had cancer and intractable pain, which morphine would not take away, he went in his cabin cruiser into international waters off the coast of Florida to buy heroin for her to take to relieve her pain. So I say, if it helps, go for it.

Kathryn: I think its great! I think that they should stop arresting people for using it and selling it. That's just not right but they can do it. There is cannabis oils that you put a drop under your tongue you don't have to smoke it to get the benefits from it. Eating it is better than smoking it for the benefits of pain and stuff. 

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