Resident: pump brakes on pot law

To the Editor:

The VW Independent exposed the Van Wert City Council’s intent to change the city ordinance to allow medical marijuana dispensaries in the city of Van Wert. This was my first notice of this. I sent emails to my ward representative and to the council president and the two at-large council members expressing my incredulity that they would make this change. I was unable to make the city council meeting but did watch it the next day.

I think city council members are voting without being fully informed about the issue. From what I heard, it sounds like someone came to council suggesting that they make the change and they said OK and asked the law director to check into it. No one else seems to have done their due diligence. The law director had some information on how the state is proceeding slowly with recreational licenses and the restrictions the state places on where a dispensary can be located. There was some discussion about zoning but I think there are a lot of other questions that need to be asked and more things to consider.

For example, I checked articles related to Ohio’s recreational use dispensary and found that almost all the requests for recreational licenses are being made by businesses that are current medical marijuana dispensaries. From what I could gather from these articles, a city has to declare a moratorium or pass a law against recreational use or the medical marijuana dispensary can become a recreational use dispensary. There was no mention of that or of how the city plans to regulate a recreational use dispensary. My fear is that if a medical dispensary opens in the city of Van Wert, it will then apply for a recreational use license and we have no law on the books to prevent it as the city code is silent on the issue and it is not addressed in the current wording of the proposed change to the city code. Have any council members considered this?

Is a medical marijuana dispensary even needed in Van Wert? There is a medical marijuana dispensary in Van Wert County located on West 5th Street in Delphos. How many people living in Van Wert City have a medical marijuana card? Are there enough people in the city of Van Wert to operate a profitable medical marijuana dispensary in the city of Van Wert? If not, the only way the dispensary could be profitable is by selling for recreational use. Have any member of city council asked these questions? Has anyone talked with the operators of the dispensary in Delphos? If it is not needed, why make a change?

One of the council members was surprised when another member questioned allowing the change and was surprised when that member stated that they were hearing opposition to the change. I wonder how many council members have actively sought input from their constituents. Has anyone done a simple survey of their constituents? There are plenty of sites where you can set up a simple survey then put the survey link out on your social media page. If you are interested in being transparent in what you do, you should let your constituents know what has been proposed and asked for their feedback; otherwise, how can you say you are representing their interests? Do most of your constituents want the change?

I ask City Council to “pump the brakes” on this issue and do more investigation before making a change that will harm the city in the long run and will go against the wishes of their constituents. There are many other concerns and questions that should be addressed. This is just part of it.

Andrew McMahon

Van Wert