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Medical marijuana: Moratorium advised for dispensaries

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Although a rule-making process has effectively created an ad-hoc six-month moratorium on the legal sale of medical marijuana in the state of Florida, the city of Cape Coral has been advised to institute an additional six-month temporary moratorium of its own.

That was the recommendation made by David Newlan, the Cape Coral chief of police, Vincent Cautero, Community Development director, and Robert Pederson, planning manager, in a memo to City Manager John Szerlag regarding the opening of any medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.

The Florida Medical Marijuana Legalization initiative, known as Amendment 2, went into effect on Jan. 3. However, the Florida Department of Health still must set regulations for the issuance of ID cards, qualifications, standards and registration requirements for treatment centers by Aug. 3.

This has created a six-month “moratorium” as no state licenses for medical marijuana would be processed or issued until the rule-making process is complete, the memo states.

The state then has 90 days to issue those ID cards, which pushes the process to Nov. 3, the memo states.

Newlan said moratoriums are in place locally in Estero and Bonita Springs as they and other cities identify “economic and social considerations” for local governments.

Newlan said “such an incremental approach in issuing dispensing licenses to mitigate errors in licensing and processing” is recommended for the city, which conceivably could push the issuance of medical marijuana to winter or even spring of 2018.

The city also could opt to take no action, the memo states.

City spokesperson Connie Barron said the city wouldn’t do anything until local officials finds out what the state is going to do regarding the issue.

“It gives the city time to decide how we might want to handle it. We can’t answer questions until the city assesses what the options are. Ultimately, city Council will make that decision,” Barron said. “We’re taking the position it needs to be a well thought out process.”

A local moratorium would provide time to research, study and analyze impacts of the law, from public safety to property values to how these dispensaries would be zoned, according to the staff memo.

Barron said it’s much too early to speculate anything.

Some Council members are questioning the need for additional delays on the city’s part.

Councilmember Richard Leon said the people have spoken (more than 70 percent of Lee County voters voted in favor of medical marijuana) and that a moratorium would entrench a negative image on the part of the city regarding dispensaries.

“Where other cities have moratoriums in place, the city can be ahead of them. It will be six months before permits will be handed out from the state,” Leon said. “It’s a bad statement. This is an example of how Cape Coral is unfriendly to business. Let’s work with the people and do as they ask. Come on.”

Councilmember Rana Erbrick said she is not in favor of a moratorium because the state has to come up with the rules and that the city needs to be an influence.

“We could discuss what we want to see and how we want to see it in Tallahassee. We’re one of the few large cities that hasn’t done that sort of thing and we had a large amount of our voters approve it,” Erbrick said. “We have time to look at these issues without a moratorium. There could be an economic benefit to not jumping on the moratorium bandwagon.”

Erbrick said there are many things to consider, such as zoning, where you would locate it, security, odor control and how to discard the waste, that need to be done ASAP.

Erbrick said the city and state should have done this previously, especially after medical marijuana nearly passed in 2014.

“I knew this was coming back on the ballot to make it more palatable. It was inevitable in my book. I had hoped the city would be further along because once it got passed the state had six months to figure out the rules and regs,” Erbrick said.

Barron said the city Council is expected to discuss the issue in a workshop meeting in April. An ordinance would have to be drafted and voted on, which likely wouldn’t happen until late April or early May.

By that timeline, dispensaries could open by Nov. 3 for ID cards.

The memo stated that it is estimated in Florida that 0.92 percent of the population is eligible, with the average for other states being 1.21 percent. It has been recommended there be one dispensary for every 67,222 residents, meaning there could be two or three in the city.

Barron said this is why staff is recommending a slow approach.

“It’s just good governance to follow a process and not rush into decisions because it does no good to adopt rules that end up in conflict,” Barron said.