By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
Piedmont city council members are considering how a city ordinance should read for medical marijuana dispensaries in town.
State Question 788 made medical marijuana legal and only restricted dispensary locations to 1,000 feet from a school.
“They’re a legal commercial business and should be treated as such,” Councilman Kevan Blasel said. “I will take a look at our ordinances and see if there’s anything about certain kinds of businesses in certain places.”
Yukon’s city council passed what critics contend is a restrictive ordinance that bans dispensaries from being located within 1,000 feet of a school, church, park, neighborhood, library or museum. With one of those entities around every corner in Yukon, a dispensary is limited to land south of Interstate 40.
State Question 788 prohibited municipalities from restricting zoning laws to prevent dispensaries.
Piedmont City Councilman Al Gliechman said marijuana is still considered an illegal drug.
“I’m against all marijuana,” he said. “A thousand feet from schools, churches, that’s standard stuff.”
Piedmont city councilman John Brown said he was not for State Question 788.
“I’m not against medical marijuana but I was against SQ 788 because it was too loosely written,” he said. “It’s too broad.”
Brown’s views would take a backseat to state law.
“I don’t want the stores for that to open up in a number of places in town, but the law is the law and we have to follow it. I think what Yukon did is probably too restrictive and opens them up to litigation. If you can’t put it anywhere, that’s a problem. That’s not going to work,” Brown said.
Brown said he plans to bring up the possibility of drafting an ordinance during Monday night’s city council meeting.
A call to Piedmont City Attorney Mike Segler was not returned at press time, but Okarche Town Attorney Bryce Kennedy believed lawsuits would plague any city that passed an ordinance similar to Yukon’s.
Kennedy left his personal beliefs out of the matter.
“It’s definitely going to set you up for litigation from the industry. It’s not a matter of right or wrong, the public passed it and we are their government,” he said.
Kennedy is preparing an ordinance about medical marijuana dispensaries for Okarche’s town board to consider.
“Our agenda is just going to square the law with municipal ordinances. This is going to provide that if you get caught with marijuana without a medical license, the fine would be $400 which is what the act says. If you have a license you won’t be charged unless you have too much marijuana as defined under the state act which is more than 3 ounces, more than 72 ounces of edibles.”
There is some hope for those who opposed medical marijuana. Kennedy said because SQ 788 was not an amendment to the state’s constitution that lawmakers can change or toss it out.
“They may not stay in office long if they do that, but they do have the power to amend it and even repeal it if they wanted to,” he said.
