CLEVELAND, Ohio – City Council could roll back a moratorium on cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes, a step viewed as necessary to avoid shutting Cleveland out of potentially lucrative tax gains.
City Council introduced a bill Monday evening that would eliminate cultivation from the existing moratorium, but leave in place bans on processing of marijuana into medical products and the establishment of dispensaries for selling the marijuana products.
“I’m suggesting to do that just to not lock us out of the growing process,” City Council President Kevin Kelley told members in a midday caucus meeting.
Ohio’s medical marijuana law, passed in June 2016, allows people with one of 21 medical conditions to buy and use marijuana if recommended by a physician.
The state has been drawing up rules for regulating it. Those rules must be done by Sept. 8. The operation of medical marijuana businesses – growing, processing and dispensaries – is slated to be underway by September 2018.
For a community like Cleveland, a growing operation is attractive because it could employ several people in well paying jobs and generate thousands of dollars in tax revenues as a business.
In Boston, where there are two medical marijuana growing sites governed under Massachusetts laws, the city gathered several million dollars last year in taxes, according to City Council research.
Ohio intends to issue 24 licenses, half for smaller operations with no more than 3,000 square feet of growing space and half for up to 25,000 square feet of growing space. The application process openson June 5 and will be closed by the end of the month.
Growing sites must be indoors in buildings not located within 500 feet of restricted areas, such as schools, churches and libraries. The sites will be regulated by the state. There will be no growing in open fields.
In Cleveland, there are plenty of potential sites.
“In the city of Cleveland we have these large, old, abandoned industrial sites,” Councilman Mike Polensek said during the caucus meeting Monday. “We have a lot of old buildings that could be put back into public use.”
Already potential investors have been working in the industry for months, raising capital and identifying potential sites. But if a community has a moratorium in place, the state won’t consider a site in that city for a growing license.
Cleveland’s moratorium on the entire medical marijuana industry took effect last October.
Kelley acknowledged that there have been a handful of inquiries from people interested in locating in Cleveland. But the moratorium has tamped down interest, he said.
“If we don’t do this then there’s no reason for (any grower) to even consider Cleveland,” Kelley said in an interview.
Several members of council indicated they support the idea, so long as controls over processing and distribution are carefully considered down the road. The city’s moratorium on those aspects would expire in the fall.
The legislation will be routed through council committees. The intention is to approve it at the June 6 meeting, City Council’s last before its summer recess.
credit:cleveland.com