Lima lifts moratorium on pot

City not likely to get medical marijuana dispensaries soon.

The Lima City Council LIMA — Safety Services Committee unanimously moved Wednesday to ask the city’s legal counsel to prepare zoning legislation that regulates future medical marijuana establishments, which effectively ends a six-month moratorium on medical marijuana establishments.

Despite the city’s action, Lima will not be getting any medical marijuana dispensaries in the near future. Only a single dispensary is allowed within the areas of Auglaize, Allen and Putnam counties as stated by Ohio’s medical marijuana law, and one business, Eagle Dispensaries, 502 N. Dixie Highway near Wapakoneta, has already begun the approval process.

Because Lima waited more than a year to allow medical marijuana dispensaries, there’s a high probability no business in the area will be approved, at least any time soon.

“Even if we say yes to this, if Auglaize gets a dispensary we’re done. This is crazy,” Councilman Sam McLean said. “We need to get with the program. We need to keep ourselves in the game to put it easily. I think it’s a very viable. The laws that the state has put together, it’s something they’ve thought through.”

The two members of the public who spoke at the meeting asked the council to allow medical marijuana within Lima. The final speaker of the night, Maj. Jim Baker, represented the Lima Police Department. He voiced his concerns with how local, state and federal marijuana laws might create conflict when it comes to enforcement.

“As of today, it creates a tremendous dogma for us,” Baker said. He explained that removing the moratorium could create a potential scenario where federal investigators might ask the LPD to aid them in a raid of a local medical marijuana business, which would add costs onto taxpayers.

McLean said he had considered such a problem, and he would like to see the city craft legislation that would allow Lima to collect some sort of property or sales tax on medical marijuana establishments in order to offset costs if such an incident were to occur.

Other council members were also in the audience. Councilman Todd Gordon and Councilwoman Carla Thompson made it known that they approved lifting the moratorium. Councilman Derry Glenn also voted in favor of lifting the moratorium.