West Newbury Select Board Adds Cannabis Prohibition to May Ballot

WEST NEWBURY -- March 19, 2026, West Newbury Select Board votes to place cannabis prohibition on May 4 ballot, reopening warrant to add article. Acting on a same-night deadline, Chair Wendy Reed and members Barry Fogel and Christopher Wile voted unanimously Thursday to add a single ballot question asking voters to prohibit all three forms of recreational cannabis establishments, retail, processing, and cultivation, in town. Town counsel had advised that because West Newbury voted yes on the 2016 statewide legalization referendum, both a ballot vote and a town meeting vote are needed to ban cannabis uses; the board reopened and reclosed the annual warrant in the same session to add the companion article. The board also voted to hire Community Paradigm Associates over higher-priced competitor Capital Strategic Solutions to conduct a municipal organizational assessment, within a $35,000 budget, and set the planning department's budget at $87,310 pending the assessment's findings. The Whittier vocational assessment came in at just over $240,000, about $15,000 below the $255,000 budgeted, while health insurance costs are projected to climb roughly $80,000 over current estimates.