The Biddeford City Council on Tuesday will consider placing a temporary moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries and marijuana growing facilities in the city.

Biddeford will join a small number of Maine communities grappling with how to regulate medical marijuana caregivers, some of whom operate small businesses that grow the drug to sell to a revolving list of patients.

City Manager James Bennett said the moratorium will give city staff time to look at Biddeford’s land use regulations and, if needed, make recommendations on how to regulate marijuana growing facilities.

“We’re going to take a closer look at this to make sure the caregiver component isn’t a loophole where people can come in and start growing a large amount that gets into a commercial type operation,” Bennett said. “We want to do a timeout before we have a bunch of them come into the community.”

Towns and cities are allowed to put zoning rules in place for where caregivers can grow and sell, but have to be careful not to conflict with state law. Caregivers are required by law to cultivate within a secured, enclosed area and have to have fences if growing outside.

Bennett said Biddeford hasn’t seen any large problems with grow operations, but there have been complaints about the smell in neighborhoods and multi-unit buildings.

One of the state’s eight licensed medical marijuana dispensaries operates in Biddeford, and a different dispensary operates a growing facility in one of Biddeford’s business parks. Dispensaries are licensed and regulated as large-scale marijuana suppliers and can serve an unlimited number of patients.

Caregivers – who are licensed by the state – are allowed to grow up to six mature plants to supply five patients. However, some caregivers supply a larger number of patients by rotating their customers and keeping only five active customers at a time. Caregiver applications and patient records are confidential under state law, which means municipal employees often don’t know how many caregivers are operating in their communities.

There are about 2,225 caregivers in Maine. The state cannot provide an exact number of patients because it does not keep a registry, but doctors have printed more than 35,000 certificates required under state regulations to certify patients. That number could include duplicates and replacement certificates and is likely higher than the actual number of patients, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

York voters in 2014 approved an ordinance to regulate medical marijuana as a land use and require a public approval process and a business license requirement. The ordinance was proposed after residents complained about a leased warehouse where eight caregivers were cultivating marijuana. Those caregivers are suing the town, arguing the ordinance violates their right to remain anonymous and protected from being inspected by local authorities.

Last year, Old Orchard Beach approved rules that restrict where dispensaries or “medical marijuana production facilities can be located and require them to go through a Planning Board site review. Those rules were prompted by a proposal to turn a former post office into a cultivation space for up to four caregivers.

Sanford officials have extended a moratorium on commercial medical marijuana businesses outside of a primary residence while officials come up with rules to govern those businesses.

Waterville officials are currently working on an ordinance intended to restrict medical marijauan from being sold out of a downtown storefront, but the draft ordinance contains language that could apply to other caregivers who aren’t proposing that type of business. In Fairfield, town officials say state regulations prevented them from doing anything when neighbors of a medical marijuana caregiver complained and asked for restrictions.

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