Richmond Heights extends moratorium on recreational marijuana businesses

Richmond Heights City Council has voted to extend its current moratorium on recreational marijuana businesses until Oct. 19

Last week’s unanimous vote — which prohibits any sale, cultivation or distribution of marijuana within the city for an additional four months — will give the city more time to decide how they want to move forward with the new market, council president Bobby Jordan stated in an earlier interview

Ohio legalized the sale of recreational marijuana in 2023, and Richmond Heights initially responded in December by placing a six-month moratorium on businesses, which was to end  June 19.

Ohio legalized medical marijuana in 2016, and Richmond Heights passed legislation that would allow its sale although no stores that sell it currently exist within the city.

Law Director Todd Hunt gave council a fact sheet containing information on the new Ohio law. He said that the state was favoring companies with existing medical marijuana locations before new companies, and since Richmond Heights didn’t have any medical locations within the city, it might take longer for a store to open, even without a moratorium.

“Tonight, all this does is extend the moratorium so that there won’t be any businesses at least for the next four months,” Hunt said to council. “The applications are being submitted now through the state of Ohio, but they can’t get one in Richmond Heights, because of the moratorium, and after that hopefully we have some sort of legislation.”

In response to one council person asking when they will need to review the fact sheet, Hunt said they should take the time to decide if there are benefits to the city or not, and what those would be.

“It will be useful between now and whenever in the next few months,” Hunt said. “There have been taxes placed by it on the state and we get 36% of that. That’s one incentive I suppose.”