Ohio voters last November approved Issue 2, legalizing adult-use recreational marijuana and giving dispensaries the ability to apply for state sales licenses.
Neither of Portage County’s two licensed medical marijuana dispensaries have yet been granted provisional licenses to also sell recreational marijuana, but city, township and village leaders across the county are working to digest the new rules, and to decide what they want for their communities.
The Portager will run a series of three articles detailing each community’s response, the first one focusing on northern Portage county, the second on central, and the third on the county’s southern townships.
Aurora City Council anticipates enacting a total ban on cannabis sales, dispensaries, cultivators and processors as of July.
“We have heard from a number of residents who have expressed concerns about cannabis operations in the city. Council and I are proposing this legislation prohibiting such operations, for business or commercial purposes, as a reflection of what we believe the community’s values and concerns are at this time,” Mayor Ann Womer Benjamin said.
The Village of Mantua in February set a one-year moratorium on adult use dispensaries, cultivators and processors. Village officials want time to decide what its rules and regulations will be before enacting their own ordinances, and to ensure that Mantua’s zoning code aligns with the state’s, Mayor Tammy Meyer said.
Mantua Township trustees are in the process of making the township’s temporary moratorium on all commercial cultivation, processing and sale of cannabis products permanent.
“If township residents would like to purchase commercially cultivated cannabis products a short drive to Streetsboro, Aurora, or Kent to purchase their desired products, it would not be an inconvenience,” Trustee John Festa said.
The trustees based their decision on the potential for criminal activity, and the fact that of “the massive amounts of tax money that will be generated by commercial sales of cannabis, none of the windfall will be earmarked for townships, leaving us to deal with the circumstances,” Festa explained.
Festa is correct regarding tax revenue: In addition to each county’s sales tax, the Ohio Administrative Code authorizes the state to levy a 10% sales tax on the sale of adult use cannabis “for the purpose of supporting social equity issues, providing funds to support jobs and economic development, providing funds for host communities who have adult use dispensaries in their jurisdiction to support those communities, funding education and treatment for individuals with cannabis and other addiction issues, and defraying the costs of regulation and administering the tax.”
Hiram Township does not allow medical or or adult use dispensaries, but the trustees have not addressed cultivation or processing.
“Don’t think it’s right,” Trustee Jack Groselle said. “I had a friend in college who smoked it and it totally destroyed him. It’s not good.”
Nelson Township does not address commercial cultivation, but bans the sale, storage and processing of marijuana or marijuana-related products.
“Individuals can have up to six plants. We can’t stop that,” said Trustee Anna Mae VanDerHoven. “We have a problem right now with the quarry park [Nelson Ledges Quarry Park, a private resort and campground in the township]. It’s the marijuana heaven. We didn’t want them to become a sale factory and start selling it to the people who are coming there. They have over 900 campsites. It would just be a free for all.”
Park owner and long-time Nelson resident Evan Kelly said he is trying to run the best family park he can. That Nelson’s trustees would enact a marijuana ban “is anti-American and unconstitutional to the citizens of Nelson,” he said. “This was voted on. I think this is an awful thing to go back as a township and tell these people that they’re different from the rest of the state.”
Law or no law, people who smoke marijuana have been doing so for years, and Kelley said he does not know why his park was singled out. He said he would try to work with Nelson’s trustees, telling them he would never allow sales, storage, or anything else.
“Just because pot is legal, Nelson Ledges Quarry Park is not going to open up as a weed free for all. Absolutely not. I don’t want people smoking in front of children. I don’t want big smoking apparatuses,” he said.
VanDerHoeven said the trustees’ decision was unanimous, and is not aimed solely at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park.
“It’s all or none. We’re not going to discriminate just because of them. It’s all of the township. No one’s going to do it here,” she said.
The township leaders wish to retain Nelson’s rural character, and have no desire to become like any of the county’s cities, which actively work to attract shoppers, VanDerHoeven said.
Streetsboro limits medical marijuana and adult use dispensaries to two, and even then limits them to the city’s business district. Dispensaries must be separated by at least 2,000 feet even though the Ohio Administrative Code stipulates a minimum separation of one mile. Mayor Glenn Broska said in any court dispute, the state would likely prevail.
Shalersville Township bans all marijuana sales, cultivators, and processors.
“We feel there’s plenty going on around us,” Trustee Ron Kotkowski said. “We don’t want any of that in Shalersville. We decided to preemptively outlaw it, but if anyone comes to us with a proposal, we’d look at it.”
After conducting an online survey of its citizens, Freedom Township trustees gave a thumbs down to commercial cultivation, Trustee Tom Mesaros said, adding that the township leaders have not discussed dispensaries. Should Freedom’s zoning board or community members wish to raise the issue, the trustees welcome those discussions, he said.
The Village of Windham has nothing on the books regarding marijuana sales, dispensaries, cultivators or processors, village administrator Ryan Wagner said.
Windham Township trustees have not taken an official stand one way or the other, Trustee Dan Burns said. Though he expects the issue will come up, no one has raised it, he said.
Garrettsville does not allow the sale of marijuana, but if somebody wanted to establish a dispensary within village limits, “we would listen to their proposal,” Mayor Rick Patrick said. Village officials have not discussed commercial cultivation, processing or testing facilities, he added.
Hiram village officials have not responded to The Portager’s request for comment.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.