Kirtland City Council recently voted to approve a ban on recreational marijuana facilities and deliveries, though city officials left open the possibility of revisiting the city’s marijuana ordinances in the future.
Six council members approved the ordinance, with council member Eric Ziegler absent. It prohibits cultivation facilities, processing and dispensaries for both medical and recreational marijuana. It also bans marijuana deliveries unless they are authorized under state law for patients or caregivers registered with the Ohio Board of Pharmacy.
Council approved similar restrictions for medical marijuana in 2016.
The vote came before the July 31 expiration date for the city’s temporary moratorium on recreational marijuana facilities, which council approved in December. Law Director Matthew Lallo recommended that council pass the ordinance before the moratorium expired.
“It protects the city in the event that someone would attempt to have a business arrangement in the city while the moratorium lapsed,” Lallo said.
He said that without a moratorium or ban, a property owner that chose to purchase, lease or rent a property for adult-use cannabis could have “a potential cause of action to sue the city” if it imposed a ban later on.
“If council wishes to revisit that issue, my recommendation would be to set up a committee and have that committee evaluate potential pros and cons, whatever you want to do, and then give them a date certain to report back to council,” Lallo said.
Councilman Ronald Fenstermaker said that the decision “protects us for now” and added that council could establish a group to evaluate the marijuana ordinances.
“That seems like the right thing to do, to develop a plan and then go from there,” added Councilman Scott Haymer. “I mean, we don’t want to put ourselves in the situation that Matt’s discussing.”
Support for the decision also came from Larry Laurello. Laurello’s family owns Italian Herbs, an Ashtabula-area medical marijuana dispensary, and he and his niece Jess Laurello spoke to council about their dispensary and the marijuana market.
“Mr. Lallo is correct in doing what you guys are doing, we believe, because there are a lot of out-of-state operators that would love to be able to find a weak spot, come in, buy a piece of property and do just what he said,” Larry Laurello said.
He told council that the ban “gives you more time to do what you have to do.”
The marijuana prohibition ordinance was introduced in council at the end of May. Council members let it go through three meetings and tabled it at the end of June before voting on it earlier this month.
The Ohio Division of Cannabis Control has been allowing licensed medical marijuana facilities to apply for recreational licenses since June 7. The new rules were implemented following the passage of a statewide ballot issue last November legalizing adult-use marijuana in Ohio.
The Division of Cannabis Control website indicated that no facilities were authorized to sell non-medical cannabis in Ohio as of July 10. Members of the public who were not registered as patients or caregivers in the state’s medical marijuana program were not permitted to enter dispensaries.
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