Pot shop ban OK’d

Temporary halt to allow time to regulate industry

Palm Beach County has finalized a temporary ban on medical marijuana dispensaries that aims to give state legislators time to craft regulations for the industry.

TheCounty Commission voted lastweek to give final approval to a one-year moratorium on medical pot operations.

Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said the intent of the moratorium isn’t to prevoters vent patients fromgetting marijuana.

“All of us have our stories of family and friends who really needed to have access to this,” she said. “I want to assure the public we willmove as quickly aswe can, butwe’ll make surewemove the rightway.”

State legislators will begin discussing medical marijuana when their session starts onMarch 7. The state has until July to develop regulations for medical marijuana.

Commissioners said the moratorium could be lifted earlier than one year, and they could craft their own regulations. Local governments across the state have imposed moratoriums, including the cities of Delray Beach and Boca Raton.

Nearly 75 percent of Palm Beach County in November supported Amendment 2, which authorized the use of medical marijuana in Florida.

In other business, commissioners gave preliminary approval to a horse manure recycling facility thatwould be operated by Horizon Composting between Wellington and Belle Glade. County officials said this will be the first horse manure recycling site in Florida.

In January, the commission approved a pilot program that will allow up to four horse waste recycling sites to operate in ruralwestern Palm Beach County, an effort to curtail illegal dumping that occurs during the county’s busy equestrian season that runs from January to April.