HOLYOKE -- "Radical agenda for Holyoke."

"Making Holyoke into a corporate drug dealer."

"Filled with hubris as the self-righteous social justice warrior."

These are among the phrases City Council President Kevin A. Jourdain used Wednesday in slamming Mayor Alex B. Morse for vetoing the City Council's moratorium on approval of recreational marijuana retailers. (see below)

Morse said he vetoed the measure because a statewide moratorium makes it unnecessary and it hinders the city economically in the competition with other cities and towns for the marijuana industry's jobs and revenue.

The Council on Aug. 1 voted 10-4 to impose a moratorium on recreational marijuana retailers until July 1, 2018 or until the city establishes an ordinance to regulate the industry.

Jourdain said a moratorium on retailing of recreational marijuana is necessary to ensure local laws are established to regulate the new industry.

The Council will consider whether to override Morse's veto at its next meeting on Sept. 5, Jourdain said. Ten votes, or a two-thirds majority, are needed on the 15-member City Council to override a veto.

"To have no moratorium is to invite chaos and allow potential locaters of marijuana facilities or retail shops to come into the city without having to follow any local controls to protect the city and its residents," Jourdain said.

"Regrettably like everything else, the mayor has politicized this issue and thrown common sense out the window due to his blind following of his on-going radical agenda for Holyoke. His is an agenda of making Holyoke into a corporate drug dealer, without consideration to any of the impacts on neighborhoods, businesses, families, etc.," he said.

"Our mayor now sits so high on his horse filled with hubris as the self-righteous social justice warrior he views himself that he cannot see the decay he is creating around him," he said.

Morse said the language Jourdain used was striking and unnecessary because officials should be able to debate and disagree.

"I honestly don't understand the need for such vitriol. We can disagree on policy without resorting to hostility and sarcasm. I have never gone so far as to disrespect Councilor Jourdain or any members of the City Council, and I expect that same respect. Other than that, my veto letter speaks for itself and I look forward to the City Council deliberating whether or not to override the veto," Morse said.

Voters in Massachusetts approved the recreational marijuana law in 2016 and permitted medical marijuana facilities by approving a statewide ballot question in 2012.

Here is Holyoke City Council President Kevin A. Jourdain's statement about Mayor Alex B. Morse's veto of the Council's moratorium on approval of recreational marijuana retailers:

The temporary moratorium has been the common sense solution used by nearly every community on the adoption of both medical marijuana and now recreational marijuana legalization laws. It is used to allow the city some time to draft and approve new ordinances to regulate the placement and permitting of marijuana facilities. After the legalization of medical marijuana, Holyoke passed a moratorium until our final zoning ordinance was adopted. The moratorium was then lifted, and the City Council has received exceptional praise for the comprehensive and thoughtful law we have adopted. Permit seekers such as Green Thumb Industries were then allowed to proceed accordingly.

To have no moratorium is to invite chaos and allow potential locaters of marijuana facilities or retail shops to come into the city without having to follow any local controls to protect the city and its residents.

It is not a simple matter to pass zoning ordinances and requires public hearings and much work. This is made more difficult by the fact that we have not yet even received a final version of the state law on recreational marijuana, and the state has released no regulations on how the new law will be administered. We also need guidance from our law department and municipal organizations on these new rules to make sure we get this right. The state has also placed a moratorium until June 1, 2018 on the operating of a recreational marijuana facility but we cannot count on that alone to protect the city and nor has other cities.

Therefore, following our time tested method for protecting the people of Holyoke we have adopted a waiting period until our zoning ordinances can be adopted to accommodate the new law. We have already begun our work. When those are completed which will not extend beyond July 1, 2018 and hopefully sooner, the temporary moratorium will automatically be lifted.

Regrettably like everything else, the Mayor has politicized this issue and thrown common sense out the window due to his blind following of his on-going radical agenda for Holyoke. His is an agenda of making Holyoke into a corporate drug dealer, without consideration to any of the impacts on neighborhoods, businesses, families, etc. He uses a fake message of marijuana as economic development because he is entirely empty of real solutions to grow Holyoke in any meaningful way and now admits marijuana is the best hope for our future. This is a clearly sad indictment of his Mayorship. His failed thinking on this issue is the same failed thinking that has brought hundreds if not thousands of more heroin addicts to our city, as well as, made us a mecca for more panhandlers. Our Mayor now sits so high on his horse filled with hubris as the self-righteous social justice warrior he views himself that he cannot see the decay he is creating around him.