Concerned citizens meet to improve town health, safety Discuss Magic Mushroom, preventing similar businesses

July 16, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Concerned citizens meet to improve town health, safety

Discuss Magic Mushroom, preventing similar businesses

WEATHERSFIELD

—

A group of residents have been meeting with local prevention workers and town officials to advocate for changes in their community in the wake of the relocation of the Magic Mushroom storefront on Route 5 in Ascutney, a short

distance from Weathersfield School and adjacent to a camp ground.

 

The outspoken residents, including both young parents and senior citizens, voiced their concerns related to the potential for increased crime, decreased property values, youth exposure, and the health and safety of residents.

 

“Our initial discussions zeroed in on the issue of the Magic Mushroom,” said Community Mobilization Coordinator Vicki Gass of Mt. Ascutney Prevention Partnership, who facilitates the meetings. “People have been asking, ‘What does this mean for our kids? What can we do to keep businesses like this out of our town? What are the police doing?’”

 

Magic Mushroom’s website invites visitors to, “Come on in and check out the best in quality and selection for pipes, vaperizors [sic], spoons, scales, clothes, tattoo equipment, bubblers, waterpipes, throwing stars, tactical and fantasy knives and much, much more.” The owners operate another storefront in downtown Springfield.

 

“I am just totally appalled by this,” said resident Geraldine Rudenfeldt, referring to the products sold in Magic Mushroom and citing articles she’s read on the effects of marijuana use on the teen brain.

 

While the paraphernalia is marketed for tobacco use, “We know what it’s really used for,” said Melanie Sheehan, a Weathersfield resident and director of community health outreach at Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center . “But products are not illegal until they have resin in them that’s not tobacco.”

 

While some residents questioned why town officials let Magic Mushroom come to Ascutney to begin with, the town’s hands are tied given current zoning laws. There is nothing on the books that prevents Magic Mushroom from doing business in Weathersfield.

 

This group aims to change that. “We can apply pressure,” said retired schoolteacher Loraine “Cookie” Shand, who is dismayed over the potential for the community’s reputation to deteriorate.

 

Shand said that people once referred to Ascutney Village as “Smutneyville” when an adult drive in operated

in town years ago, and she doesn’t want to revisit those days.

Members of the group shared their concerns at a recent planning commission meeting, in the hope of preventing similar businesses from establishing in the area. “We talked to them about limiting stores that sell drug related paraphernalia near schools,” said Mark Ostrom, while other residents suggested that the town should look at restricting these businesses town wide, not only within a particular zone or radius of a school

.

Earlier this year, the village of Ludlow, Vt., adopted such a town wide ordinance “prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries and establishments that sell or display drug and tobacco paraphernalia.”

 

In Weathersfield, while a new zoning ordinance wouldn’t apply to existing businesses in town, like Magic Mushroom, it would prohibit new ones from setting up shop.

 

“Residents want to see family oriented economic development that promotes healthy choices,” Gass said. “[The town] can create a vision of what they want their community to look like in five, 10 and 20 years by passing ordinances and zoning laws that promote the development they want.”

 

In addition to the Weathersfield group’s work toward proposing a new zoning ordinance,

members of the group have been invited, along with MAPP, to work with the planning

commission to incorporate language supporting health and safety into the town plan.

 

With that in mind, the group has been brainstorming ideas related to their “town vision.” Thoughts include promoting the health and safety of citizens, especially children; maintaining maximum property values; reducing crime; reducing traffic; maintaining the

historical and environmental beauty of the town; and promoting a local economy based on

“family tourism.”

 

The group’s next community meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, August 15, at Mart

in Memorial Hall in Weathersfield. For more information or to connect with the group, email Vicki Gass at vgass@mahhc.org or call 802.674.7450. For more information about Mt. Ascutney Prevention Partnership, visit www.mappvt.org and “like” on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mappvt.org