Indian Harbour Beach appeared to be one City Council roll call vote away from banning medical marijuana dispensaries, that is until they recalled that 70.5 percent of IHB voters had voted in support of allowing the dispensaries.
The catch is that those voters gave the go-ahead for the dispensaries to operate generally, vaguely in the state, not necessarily inside their city. Also, no one knew how the legislature would implement the law if it passed. The legislature didn’t even know until it convened a special session to tackle medical marijuana after not finding a solution during the regular 60-day session.
When the dust settled at the July 11 meeting, the Indian Harbour Beach City Council – which legally had the option to ban dispensaries – decided to continue to follow earlier action they took on the matter putting a one-year moratorium on the issuance of Business Tax Receipts for the facilities.
Feeling that the matter of medical marijuana dispensaries would continue to come up, the City of Indian Harbour Beach had in 2014 adopted an ordinance regulating medical marijuana operations within the community, including the prohibition of cultivation of medical marijuana in the city.
A revised state amendment did, in fact, return to the ballot in November 2016 and was approved by 71 percent of the voters in Florida, 70.5 percent in Indian Harbour Beach.
Following passage of the November 2016 amendment, the city implemented a one-year moratorium (ending next January) to ensure the city’s regulations would comply with regulations adopted by the Florida Legislature.
Cities can, by ordinance, ban medical marijuana dispensaries. However, cities that choose to allow them cannot limit the number of dispensaries within their boundaries and such permitting requirements cannot be more restrictive than the zoning or permitting requirements for currently existing pharmacies.
City Attorney Karl Bohne provided the council with the third option of retaining the old ordinance until the situation becomes more clear, perhaps increasing the risk of future litigation.
City Manager Mark Ryan pointed out that Cocoa Beach has already approved the measure. “If you elect to ban these dispensaries, you will not prelude access to these facilities by our citizens,’’ he wrote.
Said council member Frank Guertin: “We have a lot of different places (considering approval of the dispensaries). One or two of them may approve them and it may not be a problem for our people who voted for it (to travel to those cities).”
The bill divides the state into five regions (Northwest, Northeast, Central, Southeast, Southwest) and authorizes the Department of Health to determine the maximum number of dispensaries allowed in each region based on population within that region compared to the total state population. Under the bill, medical marijuana is exempt from the state sales tax. The bill prohibits the smoking of medical marijuana, but authorizes it to be vaped or consumed in pill or edible form.
“We don’t have to knee-jerk reaction. It’s all going to flesh out because there is a lawsuit pending to allow smoking of it and, if that lawsuit is successful, that may change everybody’s regulations. We just wanted to get you thinking about it. Before you know it it is going to be January,’’ Bohne said.
