A battle in Tamarac between medical pot and little tots

When Florida voters legalized marijuana for treatment of medical conditions, it was predicted that storefront pot dispensaries would soon proliferate, and they have. Broward has 22 medical marijuana dispensaries. Four are in Tamarac, all in a two-mile radius, in a city of 70,000 residents. Make that five dispensaries. Tamarac officials have voted 4 to 1 to approve a fifth dispensary, and this one was controversial because of where it’s going — a few doors from a preschool. Only Mayor Michelle Gomez voted no. In this case, it was the right vote.

The location is a strip mall near the corner of Commercial Boulevard and Rock Island Road called Sabal Palm Plaza. It’s home to a tattoo parlor, Chinese restaurant, smoke shop and Little Crayons Preschool, which offers parents a “bright wheel” feature that sends updates to their phones on kids’ activities in real time. The next closest treatment center is a half-mile away.

Not ‘compatible’

Tamarac’s professional staff urged rejection of the application by Ayr Cannabis Dispensary of Miami. The staff memo said: “It is staff’s opinion that the proposed application does not support the city’s comprehensive plan policy 10.8, which requires uses to be in a manner compatible with adjacent land uses so as not to adversely affect the health, safety, welfare or aesthetics of the existing or future built environment.”

However, the child care center director, Sasha Miracola, testified in support of the pot dispensary at a hearing Wednesday, arguing in effect that it would improve the neighborhood.

She said the highly regulated business would add “security and surveillance” to a strip center that’s a magnet for the homeless, drawn to a vacant storefront. Her landlord, Hassan Abdin, warned the city that if it denied the dispensary’s application, the likely tenant would instead be a liquor store.

Ayr’s representative, Daniel Sparks, said he wouldn’t mind if his own four-year-old daughter were at a preschool nearby. After Sparks spoke, his lobbyist, Ron Book, asked for the same fairness the city showed other applicants. (Book wears a second hat as Tamarac’s paid $59,000-ayear lobbyist in Tallahassee.)

Residents Fred Davenport and Jeffery Hatcher, retired police officers in the Manor Parc subdivision, opposed the dispensary and raised concern about traffic and drug use.

“Why don’t they put these dispensaries in Weston?” Hatcher asked. “Or Aventura? Because those people do not want that next to their homes.”

The 500-foot rule

By an overwhelming margin of 71%, Floridians legalized medical marijuana seven years ago, and it is used to treat cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s and many other problems. But the Legislature also allowed cities and counties to prohibit treatment centers, or else to regulate them all equally, like pharmacies.

Florida law prohibits siting pot dispensaries within 500 feet of any elementary, middle or secondary school, but preschools are not covered. The Legislature should close that loophole. Why must dispensaries be a safe distance from six-year-olds but not four-year-olds?

The vote was 4-1 with Commissioners Marlon Bolton, Kicia Daniel, Elvin Villalobos and Morey Wright voting yes. They all need to pay closer attention to their own staff’s advice.

In voting no, Mayor Gomez said she was troubled by the daycare center’s logic.

“Our businesses are saying yes to a business that is potentially not in the community’s best interest, just because of a need for security,” Gomez said. “I do not think that this is the right location.”

Tamarac is dotted with strip centers, many with empty storefronts. Can’t a marijuana company find one that’s not a few doors down from where four- and five-yearold kids are congregating?

The final irony of this case is that barely an hour after Tamarac officials approved Ayr’s proposal, they also finalized a permanent moratorium on any future treatment centers, which means no more dispensaries. As it turned out, Ayr got in the door in the nick of time.

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Davenport