In the spring of 2022, your wife’s cannabis shop did not open.

The other one did.

When that happened, people were reminded that Littleton is supposed to have two shops, and they started asking your board what was happening with “the other license,” aka, the license your wife holds from the board you sit on.

A friend of mine told me she emailed the select board in April 2022, asking about the Apothecary. She was told to try back after May Town Meeting. She did in early May and heard nothing. (Apparently, the perennial turnover of the staff in the Select Board office was to blame for the disconnect.) She told me that she was going to keep trying.

It’s important to point out (or the attribution, “Stonewall,” above, makes no sense) that you became chair of the select board in May 2022.

Over the summer of 2022, more emails came in about the Apothecary. A fellow select board member of yours felt forced to submit a formal written request for the matter to be put on the agenda after several verbal suggestions to do so had been ignored. (By you, the chair, who sets the agenda along with the town administrator.)

When I went seeking information from the select board office, Littleton’s former town administrator, Anthony Andsaldi, suggested (in July) that I send a letter to your board. I did in August.

Throughout the fall of 2022, people (mostly me) appeared at select board meetings for “Public Comment”—where you sat smack dab in the middle as the chair—to ask about the plans for opening the Apothecary.

No one answered my questions, reminding me it was “public input” and not a Q&A.

I have to tell you how truly absurd it felt to be saying, to you, Matthew, “through you to the other four select board members” to ask them what was happening with your wife’s pot shop. It was a crazy-world absurdity that we all wanted to buy into because when it came to all the other stuff you’ve been doing on the select board, most people liked what they saw. I’m not ashamed to say that I was one of them.

But on this one issue, Matthew, come on!?

We’re not morons.

Or maybe you think we are.

Maybe your wife thought she could get some buy-in on the idea that my inquiry was some sort of personal revenge. This idea is even more of an absurdity. Asking for information about an unused license that could generate tax revenue for the town cannot be reasonably seen as exacting “revenge” on your wife.

I wasn’t seeking “revenge” then or now, but not for nothing, apart from Chuck, I might be the only person in Littleton who’s paid any real attention to this matter.

We all know Chuck’s the only select board member who’s been in from the start, representing the select board in all things cannabis.

But I’ve been paying attention to this since it arrived in town (long before your wife and I became friends)—primarily because, I have to admit, cannabis seemed edgy to me, and I like edgy.

Edgy keeps life interesting.

And yes, I was also paying attention to all this because of the settlement agreement I have with your wife.

But let’s not abandon our capacity to hold two ideas at the same time.

The existence of a contract, aka my settlement agreement with your wife, in no way negates the financial interest all taxpayers in Littleton have in your wife’s shop. If she’s selling cannabis, the town gets easy tax revenue.

No matter how “personal” this is to me, cannabis in Littleton has been, from the start, a very public matter.

Littleton had several votes at town meetings on cannabis. There have been dozens of select board meetings, special marijuana working group meetings, and planning board meetings. We’ve had zoning changes and bylaw changes. And let’s not forget that Littleton taxpayers paid thousands of dollars in legal fees for town counsel to help us through all of this.

Cannabis is a public matter, and when you were chair of the select board, it sure felt to me that you didn’t want the town talking about any of it.

So, I went looking for answers elsewhere.

TTYS,

Jkb