Jackson Board of Aldermen discusses medical marijuana zoning

When Missouri voters approved the production, sale and use of medical marijuana in November’s election, a countdown began to an August deadline when the state will begin accepting permit applications. If any of those dispensing applications are granted for facilities in Jackson, city officials say they’ll be ready.

The Jackson Board of Aldermen received a draft ordinance at its study session Monday night that deals with medical marijuana zoning. The ordinance will be forwarded to the city’s planning and zoning commission for review and public input before it comes before the aldermen again later this spring.

“Our goal is to get this ordinance in place no later than July 15, which is our last meeting date before the state begins accepting permit applications on Aug. 3,” Jackson Mayor Dwain Hahs said.

With the passage of Amendment 2, Missouri became the 32nd state to permit the use of medical-grade marijuana for the treatment of certain medical conditions under the supervision of a prescribing physician.

Jackson city attorney Tom Ludwig, who presented the draft ordinance, told the Southeast Missourian before Monday night’s board meeting he drafted it “as a canvas for the aldermen and planning and zoning to paint on.” In other words, he expects there to be changes between now and when the ordinance is presented for final approval this summer.

“There will be a public hearing at the planning and zoning level, then the board of aldermen will have an option to have a second hearing,” Ludwig said. Dates for those hearings have not been set.

“This is really our first approach,” he added. “These are medical dispensaries, so we will zone them the same way we would a drugstore,” which would be in a commercial zone while manufacturing and fabrication of medical marijuana would be restricted to an industrial zone, according to the draft ordinance.

“It’s no different than where you can put your ice cream stand,” he said.

“From the city’s standpoint, we really only have two jobs (related to medical marijuana). One is zoning and the second is to take our old marijuana criminal ordinances and make them comply with current law,” Ludwig explained, adding “the way I’m going to write the criminal ordinance is to take the old marijuana ordinance we’ve had forever and insert an additional defense that says if you have a prescription from a licensed physician then that’s a defense for the possession of marijuana.”

Ludwig said his “biggest concern” is people will confuse “medical” and “recreational” marijuana.

“We are a medical marijuana state only,” he said. “Don’t confuse us with a recreational state. We’re not at that point at all.”

According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), 471 preliminary applications for medical marijuana cultivation, manufacturing or dispensary facilities had been received by the state as of March 28. Those applications have also brought in more than $3.3 million in nonrefundable application fees. Dispensery applications accounted for 256 of those applications and of those, 17 originated from the 8th Congressional District where a maximum of 24 permits are expected to be issued, according to DHSS.

“But at this point, I don’t know if any of those 17 are from Jackson or Cape County,” Hahs said.

jwolz@semissourian.com

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