Photo by Michelle Dillon
Columbia Care General Manager Cory Davis, left, speaks as Ward 4 Councilwoman Erin O’Neill, right, and City Development Director Geoff Schenkel, center, listen, during a Marietta City Council joint Planning Zoning Annexation and Housing and Streets Committees meeting Tuesday night that was held to discuss possible recreational marijuana related legislation.
Marietta City Council continued its discussion on recreational marijuana legislation Tuesday, including talking about a possible additional dispensary that may operate in the city.
During a Planning, Zoning, Annexation and Housing (PZAH) Committee meeting Tuesday evening, Ward 2 Councilman and PZAH Committee Chair Bret Allphin suggested to council that the city make changes to its preexisting medical marijuana legislation to incorporate adult recreational marijuana into it.
He told council that he emailed them notes on his suggestions about 45 minutes before the meeting and he asked council to review them and let him know if there is anything that they think should be covered in the legislation that isn’t in his suggestions.
The city’s conversation on recreational marijuana in Marietta started June 27 at a PZAH Committee meeting, during which current city zoning codes and state restrictions on the locations of recreational marijuana dispensaries and possible areas where a recreational marijuana dispensary could operate were discussed. These areas included some of the area near the Interstate 77 interchange near Pike Street, part of the north side of the city, some of the area east of Washington State College of Ohio, part of the west side of the city near WinBeri apartments and other areas.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Allphin asked council members if they had any questions or concerns.
City Law Director Paul Bertram said he spoke to a person on the phone Tuesday that wants to locate a dual dispensary for medical and recreational marijuana roughly across the street from Walmart.
He said the person turned in an application to the city code enforcement officer and he would send council a copy.
According to Bertram, the location where the person wants to open the dispensary meets the city zoning regulations and prohibitions in the state code about where a recreational marijuana dispensary can be located.
“They are within C3 … They are within the state of Ohio prohibitions…They are clearly (one mile) from Columbia Care,” Bertram said.
He told council there still needs to be a conversation about how many dispensaries should be allowed in Marietta.
“The way I look at it we actually can have three,” Bertram said.
Allphin had a different view on the number the city zoning codes and state rules would let operate in Marietta.
“There could be maybe two,” he said. “I don’t think there could be three.”
Ward 1 Councilman Michael Scales had a question during the meeting.
“So if one of the, quote, townships, decided they wanted to get into the mairjuana business, do they have to follow the same rules we do,” Scales asked.
Bertram said that they do have to follow the same rules the city of Marietta does because it is state law that regulates where the dispensaries can be located.
Ward 4 Councilwoman Erin O’Neiil had a concern she shared with council. She asked who would be in charge of enforcement and violations of the recreational marijuana law.
Bertram told her that the Ohio Department of Commerce would be in charge of violations of state law, similar to how liquor related violations work and that someone could call the police if they saw, for example, a minor walking into a marijuana dispensary when the law says people have to be 18 or older to do so.
Bertram also pointed out that there will be a lot of self-regulation among marijuana dispensaries because they won’t want to lose their income.
Allphin brought up that he has received some feedback from citizens on the issue of recreational marijuana sales in the city of Marietta. He said that a lot of them asked him what are the benefits of allowing it in the city.
Allphin said Ohio created the Host Community Fund where a portion of the 10% excise tax that will be charged on recreational marijuana sales will go into the fund and communities that allow recreational marijuana sales will receive some of the funds.
Scales asked if the city will receive any benefit from municipal income taxes. Bertram said that the company he talked to Tuesday that wants to open a dual-use dispensary said they plan on hiring 20 full time workers at an average salary of $62,000 and the city would get its 1.85% municipal income tax from that.
“Well I won’t believe the amount of money we get until I see the check,” Scales said.
Toward the end of the meeting, Cory Davis, the general manager of Columbia Care, briefly spoke to council.
“My name’s Cory Davis and I’m the general manager of Columbia Care,” he said. “I just came by to see what the attitude was like. If you have any questions to ask me, I’m not a lawyer by any means, I don’t know the laws line by line, but I can try to answer any questions to the best of my ability.”
Allphin thanked Davis for coming to the meeting.
“My hope is that maybe within the next month I’d like to be able to see something and form up something in language,” Allphin said.
Allphin closed the meeting stating that if anyone has questions, comments or information that they would like to share with council about this topic he would be happy to receive it.
After the meeting, Davis declined to comment on how Columbia Care views council comments and concerns.
The Cannabist Company owns Columbia Care and company Vice President of Retail Operations Erick Rodriguez told The Times in June that the company received a provisional dual-use dispensary license for medical and recreational marijuana on June 27. He also said though the company does not have a set date for when it will start dispensing recreational marijuana because they are waiting on their Division of Cannabis Control inspection, they are hoping to start by July 12-19 or maybe earlier.
According to the Division of Cannabis Control’s website, no company is permitted to cultivate, process, test or sell recreational cannabis until they are issued a dual-use license certificate of operation. The website has a timeline listed that said dual-use licenses will be awarded by Sept. 7. According to the website The Cannabist still has only a provisional duel-use dispensary license and does not have a dual-use certificate of operation yet.
A request for comment by The Cannabist Company on when they will start dispensing recreational marijuana was not returned by press time, but the company did say they will get back to The Times.
Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com
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