Cape Cod says "No" to Pot, but the Provincetown Area says Yes!

Eleven of the 15 Towns of Cape Cod, vote against legalizing weed

by Bill Russo

By a spread of eight percent in the November 8, 2016 election, voters chose to make Massachusetts the first Eastern state to legalize marijuana for recreational use.  The large margin of victory, 54 to 46 per cent, indicates widespread approval of the measure.

But the island/peninsua of Cape Cod voted against the ballot question - with the exception of the outermost Cape, where all four towns said 'yes' to pot.  The total vote of the dissenting towns was 5981 yes votes and 3629 no votes. The tiny city of Provincetown led the way with 1717 people in favor and only 537 against.

Across Barnstable County which includes all 15 towns of the Cape; Question Number Four was beaten back 64,541 to 59,758.  Cape Cod is commonly divided into four sections - Upper, Middle, Lower, and Outer.  The upper section includes the towns of Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee and Sandwich.  The section wide vote was 24,504 in favor and 27,166 against.

In the Mid Cape towns of Dennis, Yarmouth and Barnstable; the vote was 22,731 for and 26,116 not in favor of legalization.  The City of Barnstable is the Cape's largest community and is comprised of a number of villages including Hyannis, the unofficial capital of Cape Cod.

The four Outer Cape towns, Brewster, Chatham, Harwich and Orleans said no to pot by about 1500 votes, with 11,325 in favor and 12,812 against.

Under the newly passed legislation pot becomes legal almost immediately.  Residents will be allowed to have up to ten ounces in their home and one ounce on their person. Citizens will be permitted to grow their own marijuana.  Pot stores however, will not be begin to appear for about two more years - and even then local communities will have a large measure of control over the venues. This could mean that the Outer Cape will have a proliferation of such establishments but the other parts of the peninsula may be unreceptive to allowing pot stores.

By Region, here are the vote totals, with the 'yes' votes listed first, followed by the 'no' votes.

Upper Cape:

Bourne: 5178-5516
Falmouth: 9373-10,071
Mashpee: 4126-4749
Sandwich: 5807-6830

Mid Cape:

Barnstable: 12,314-13,391
Dennis: 4237-5028
Yarnouth: 6180-7697

Lower Cape:

Brewster: 3220-3467
Chatham: 1924-2611
Harwich-3982-4449
Orleans-2199-2285

Outer Cape:

Eastham: 1875-1783
Provincetown: 1717-537
Truro: 963-546
Wellfleet: 1426-763

Among the tiny islands off the coast of Cape Cod, most notably Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, the playgrounds of presidents, celebrities, and billionaires, voters were in favor of legal pot by a margin of two to one.  The final tally was 11,671 in favor with only 6268 opposed.

The largest island community, the town of Nantucket voted 4,083 for the question, with 2320 against.

Massachusetts had voted in a prior election to legalize marijuana for medicinal use.  A few dispensaries have been opened, but the state seems to have put up a number of road blocks to implementation of the law.

Supporters of the legalization of pot, hope that their elected and appointed leaders will be more prompt this time around.