LOGAN – Logan City Council is set to introduce an ordinance on Tuesday that could prohibit the licensure of recreational marijuana dispensaries within city limits, in response to the successful passage of State Issue 2 last November.
Under the regular, three-readings rules of council, a final vote on the matter would likely come on Tuesday, March 12.
Among the many changes to the Ohio Revised Code enacted by Issue 2, as detailed on the site Ballotpedia, the measure was written to legalize and regulate “the sale, purchase, possession, home grow, and use of cannabis” by adults over the age of 21. The initiative went into effect Dec. 7, but as the Ohio State Legislature squabbles over the details of legalization, the status of hopeful cultivators and dispensaries remains in limbo.
“We have not received any direction or information from the secretary of state or legislators (regarding dispensary licenses)” Lisa Schwartze, director of the Hocking County Board of Elections, told The Logan Daily News.
City council’s potential ban on recreational dispensaries is allowable in the section of the ORC addressing legalization, specifically under section 3780.25. It would not effect the city’s decriminalization law, allowing up to 200 grams’ possession of marijuana without legal penalty, passed through a voter-led initiative in 2016.
There are a couple of hang-ups in the ORC, though, which mean that any ordinance potentially passed by council would not be bulletproof. Section 3780.25 provides a “carve out” for existing medical dispensaries to sell their product recreationally, according to City Law Director Abigail Saving, regardless of a prohibition on start-up dispensaries.
Were licensure approved for Logan’s one active medical dispensary, council would still have a back door to revoke that recreational sale permit, provided it is passed within 120 days of the license’s issuance.
The Logan Daily News spoke with Mark Brown, a professor of law at Capital University, who has previously lent assistance to the Appalachian Ohio branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). The branch, formerly led by the now-retired Don Keeney, a resident of Hocking County, was instrumental in passing decriminalization in Logan in 2016, in Laurelville in 2022, and later on, with petition drives for Issue 2.
Brown referenced another niche in ORC 3780.25, allowing voters to potentially override the will of council in the event that recreational dispensaries are banned.
With a petition containing 100 signatures or 5% of a given electorate, a potential dispensary could have its licensure put up to a general referendum. With a simple majority vote, it would be allowed to sell recreationally.
In November, per statistics from the county board of elections, the four voting precincts within Logan passed Issue 2 by a substantial 54.6% majority.
Email at rmorris@logandaily.com
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