On Wednesday, Attorney General Martha Coakley ruled that towns in this state, including Reading, cannot ban medical marijuana dispensaries, according to BostonHerald.com. Towns can, however, use zoning rules to keep dispensaries in a certain area.
According to Wakefield Patch, Coakley ruled that a zoning ban on medical marijuana dispensaries approved at their Town Meeting last year conflicts with state law.
"The (law's) legislative purpose could not be served if a municipality could prohibit treatment centers within its borders, for if one municipality could do so, presumably all could do so," Coakley wrote in her decision to reject the Wakefield bylaw.
Jamie Terry, health agent for Northborough, said she does not believe any of the boards in town have yet proposed any regulation or have an expressed point of view on the topic as of yet.
"The [Massachusetts] regulations are still in draft form so it may be premature for a board to take action," she said.
Coakley did approve a bylaw adopted in Burlington that places a moratorium on dispensaries, according to BostonHerald.com, similar to the one recently proposed in North Reading that would temporarily prevent anyone from licensing a dispensary in town.