Huber Heights won’t enact medical pot moratorium

Decision in Huber Heights bucks trend in other local communities.


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Huber Heights City Council does not intend to enact moratorium legislation on medical marijuana at this time, city officials said.

Gov. John Kasich signed a bill in June making cannabis legal for medical use beginning Sept. 8. Other cities have considered and passed moratoriums to give the council and staff time to research and decide whether to limit or ban medical marijuana growth, processing or retail sale of the drug.

But instead of following suit, Huber Heights City Council has decided to hold off — for now — on passing such legislation, putting them at odds with communities like Beavercreek, Miamisburg, Miami Twp, Clayton and Troy, among others.

"Other jurisdictions have chosen to pass moratorium legislation that states they will make no changes to their local laws until there is more information on the medical marijuana law," Huber Heights Law Director Alan Schaeffer said. "There's speculation it could take up to two years for the rules and regulations to be approved before medical marijuana is ever sold in Ohio."

“We discussed it in work session and the thought was, at least for the immediate near future, we will leave it on the work session agenda, but there was no immediate need to pass any legal action,” Schaeffer said.

Council members cited various reasons for not addressing the issue through legislation at this time.

“I believe that would send the wrong message out to whatever future possibilities we might have,” Councilman Glenn Otto said. “To throw out a definitive moratorium on this — (to say) we don’t want to see anything like this in our community until we say so — I don’t think that’s the right move to make right now,” he said.

Councilman Ed Lyons said the city has “a bit of time” to discuss marijuana and make a decision. He said more information is needed before he can make a decision impacting his constituents. He’d like to know “if the residents think it’s a good idea for business, or think it’s not a good idea for the possibility of crime that could ensue.”

“Bringing into the city of Huber Heights a business that would be in the marijuana growing industry, that would be something new, and I would need to talk to residents and constituents to see how they feel about it before I vote on it,” he said.

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