WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week began to discuss whether it wants to bring to town meeting a proposal for a moratorium on marijuana businesses.

Community Development Director Andrew Groff asked the question in light of advice from town counsel and the Massachusetts Municipal Association about uncertainty in the wake of the passage of a November ballot initiative allowing the production, sale and use of recreational pot.

The recreational use and "home grown" aspect went into effect last Wednesday, but there is no regulatory framework in place for the commercial production or sale of non-medical marijuana in Massachusetts, and the commonwealth has until January 2018 to implement such a framework.

Groff told the Planning Board it is expected that the attorney general's office will authorize municipalities to put a moratorium in place at the town and city level to allow local laws to catch up to voters' rush to legalize the drug.

In the end, the board took no action but decided to seek more information before revisiting the moratorium idea later this year. Any such proposal would need town meeting approval — most likely at the May 2017 annual town meeting.

At first, the planners last Tuesday appeared to split on the question of whether the town needed to put such a moratorium in place.

Vice Chairman Chris Kapiloff, who ran the meeting in place of absent Chairwoman Amy Jeschawitz, suggested that the town would be wise to wait and see how other communities implement the law before adding any bylaws specifying where marijuana can be produced and/or sold.

"Although the answers will not be clear in 12 months … allowing those around us to be 12 months ahead of us will hopefully allow us to see their mistakes in time not to make the same ones," Kapiloff said in a meeting telecast on the town's community access television station, WilliNet. "The second reason I'd like to do this is we have a lot to talk about in terms of how we zone this. Do we allow things to be near our schools? Are their places we don't think people who are in town or from out of town should go to use marijuana?

"There's a lot to discuss. I don't know if we'll be able to do that in the next five months before town meeting."

Board members Chris Winters and Ann McCallum and Chris Winters argued that additional town regulation might not be necessary beyond what already is in place for establishments selling drugs that have been legal for decades.

"Do our bylaws treat liquor stores differently than other retail stores?" Winters asked Groff.

After the town planner indicated that they don't, McCallum continued the thought.

"We don't regulate what our liquor stores and bars look like," she said. "We don't regulate where they can be [aside from generic commercial zoning] because they're commercial establishments."

Kapiloff countered that the potential commercial uses include not just establishments where pot can be sold but also ones where it can be grown and consumed.

"To Chris' point about alcohol, it's a brewery, a liquor store and a bar," Groff said.

The discussion about a moratorium turned when Groff clarified that the commonwealth will not have a regulations in place until Jan. 1, 2018. Essentially, Massachusetts has to create something analogous to its existing Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, he said.

"So a 12-month moratorium is really a five-month moratorium," Winters said, referring to the gap between Jan. 1, 2018, and annual town meeting in 2018. "That's a different animal in some ways."

And Kapiloff clarified that he was not suggesting the town make it difficult for pot businesses, merely that Williamstown proceed with caution.

"Typically, I fall with you on the deregulation lines," he told Winters. "I'm not saying we need to overly regulate it. I'm just thinking a couple of months is not a lot of time.

"When pressure is put on groups to do something, I feel like it will overly politicize this particular event. Slowing it down and having it be something we do over the next year will be much better for our town."

The Board of Selectmen's minds were on drugs as well this week.

The BOS considered the moratorium question briefly at its Monday meeting, ultimately choosing to leave it up to the Planning Board to consider the following night.

But a couple of selectmen indicated they favored a go-slow approach when it comes to crafting bylaws that ultimately will regulate the commercial marijuana trade in the Village Beautiful.

"I think there's a lot of doubt that will last for a while," Board of Selectmen Chairman Andy Hogeland said. "The regulations won't be out for a year. I'm attracted to the idea of a moratorium. I'd rather have a placeholder where nothing would happen. I doubt there's time between now and town meeting to put together a bylaw [regulating pot businesses].

"A moratorium on allowing commercial retail facilities in town until we have a better idea what the law says makes sense."

Winters, foreshadowing Kapiloff's comment about the "politicization" of the issue, noted that town officials should take into account the town's political climate before bringing any proposals, like a moratorium, to town meeting.

"The other piece of data we have is the overwhelming passage of this article in the county and the town," Winters said. "There's a certain message there."

Town voters approved Question 4 on Nov. 8 by a margin of 2,160 to 1,387.

"That is something that the actual citizens indicated they wanted done," Winters said.

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