Simsbury Citizens and Families Against Recreational Cannabis Dispensary in OUR Community.

We The People of Simsbury in order to protect our community, our homes, our first responders, our vulnerable, and our children ask that our elected representatives on the Zoning Board and the Board of Selectmen act in good faith for the greater good and ban the establishment of a Recreational Cannabis Dispensary in Simsbury.

Our request is based on the following:

Safety =

a) Our roads will be less safe. THC (the psychoactive chemical in cannabis ) impairs driving ability. Unlike Alcohol there is not an established test that police can use to accurately detect intoxication. (1) This compromises our roads, our safety, and our police.
b) Academic studies conducted by the Univ. of Colorado Denver have shown that upon the initial opening of a new dispensary crime in the vicinity spikes from between 26% and 1452%. (2).
c) Because of the associated crime related to dispensaries police response times to other community emergencies elongate. (3) This has the potential to cost lives.
d) Because dispensaries are almost exclusively a cash business, they are the fastest growing target for Robbery/Burglary. In Denver dispensaries make up 1% of the retail establishments but constitute 10% of the robberies/burglaries. LivWell (one of Colorado's largest dispensary chains with 21 outlets). Reported 15 robbery/burglaries in 90 days. (4). The trend is escalating at an alarming rate in every community with dispensaries. (5)

Children/Mental Health=

e) Permitting a dispensary in Simsbury sends a message of tacit approval to the young and the vulnerable, that using drugs is acceptable. This is NOT a message any parent is comfortable with.
f) Study after study shows that cannabis can be a gateway drug. (6). Given that there were over 100,000 overdose deaths in America last year (8) We need to be closing potential gateways, not opening them.
g) According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 1 in 10 users of marijuana will become addicted. This number increases to 1 in 6 if the user begins use before the age of 18. (7)
h) They also report marijuana use is linked to depression, anxiety, suicide planning, psychotic episodes as well as schizophrenia to those predisposed to it. (7) (9)
i) It is also linked to lower educational outcomes and lower career achievement (7)

To risk the future of a single child to ANY of these outcomes is unconscionable.

Alcohol and THC = False Equivalency

j) Some argue that a cannabis dispensary is the same as liquor store. That is a false equivalency.
k) THC and Alcohol affect the brain completely differently. They are each chemically unique. Both have dangers, but they are NOT the same.
l) Police have breathalyzers to help them in their enforcement of drinking and driving as well as public intoxication. They do not have those tools when it comes to cannabis. This puts a very different burden on law enforcement. Again, they are not the same.
m) Cannabis dispensaries are cash businesses. As such they are much more likely to be the target of robberies or burglaries. Washington State has 660 dispensaries. (13) They are experiencing a crime rate of close to 30 incidents a month (14). At those rates it's not a matter of "if" it's a matter of "when". Liquor stores are much less cash centric, therefore less of a target. Once again, not the same.



Economics = Bad Math and Bad Faith

n) There is an economic incentive for towns to permit dispensaries. The way the State of CT has structured it is similar to MA. Whereby there are 3 buckets of taxation. A straight sales tax where the State receives 6.35% and the town (Simsbury) would receive 3%. There is also a potency tax (roughly an additional 10%) that goes directly to the State. (11) Simsbury will see none of this additional revenue.
o) The average Dispensary does between $2.1mil and $3mil in gross sales per annum. (10)
p) Assuming the top end of $3mil. The economic benefit to Simsbury would be $90,000 (3mil x 3%).
q) The Simsbury approved budget for 2023 is. $114,961,272.00 (11)
r) The additional $90,000 in taxes that a dispensary would contribute to the budget is less than 1/10th of 1% (.00078287 to be precise).
s) Are we as a community willing to gamble our safety, and our children's future for less than 1/10th of 1% of our budget?
t) Given the information provided above under "Safety" and "Children/Mental Health". It is reasonable and prudent to expect that Simsbury would need to increase its Social Service, Addiction Counseling and Police head count in order to deal with the criminal, educational, addiction, and health care consequences of a dispensary in town. Given that a single head increase, in any of these silos, is well over $100,000 this math is upside down almost immediately and has the potential to become a substantial annual LOSS.






The risks are real. The economics are feeble.

We respectfully ask you, our elected officials, to carry out your duty of protecting our community, our safety, our police officers, our vulnerable and our children.

Say NO to a dispensary in Simsbury. It's the smart choice, it's the logical choice, it's the moral choice.

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(1) https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisroberts/2021/12/31/study-sure-looks-like-marijuana-breathalyzers-dont-work-and-may-never-work/?sh=2d90d1f15c3b
(2) https://news.ucdenver.edu/do-marijuana-dispensaries-increase-neighborhood-crime/
(3) https://www.9news.com/amp/article/news/investigations/denver-police-longer-response-times/73-313872e8-945c-4ce8-a1d5-8f31a35ca724
(4) https://www.westword.com/marijuana/colorado-livwell-burglary-cash-cannabis-banking-12660338

(5) https://www.npr.org/2022/04/20/1093841615/pot-shop-robberies-are-fueling-calls-for-a-u-s-banking-bill
(6) https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/marijuana-gateway-drug
(7) https://www.samhsa.gov/marijuana
(8) https://nida.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/2022/07/percentage-of-overdose-deaths-involving-methadone-declined-between-january-2019-august-2021#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20provisional%20data%20from,a%20highly%20potent%20synthetic%20opioid.
(9) https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/07/22/health/marijuana-schizophrenia-study-wellness/index.html
(10) https://www.covasoftware.com/blog/how-much-money-does-a-cannabis-dispensary-owner-make#:~:text=Across%20all%20states%20and%20provinces,minimum%20gross%20profit%20of%20%24240%2C000.
(11) https://portal.ct.gov/cannabis/Knowledge-Base/Articles/Cannabis-taxes?language=en_US
(12) http://simsbury.gov/
(13) https://www.chronline.com/stories/washington-added-cannabis-dispensaries-in-2020-new-licensees-slow,268644
(14) https://mjbizdaily.com/rash-of-robberies-has-washington-states-cash-only-cannabis-industry-on-edge/#:~:text=Stay%20ahead%20of%20the%20curve,the%20rapidly%20evolving%20cannabis%20industry.&text=A%20total%20of%20154%20robberies,since%20the%20start%20of%202022.