Streetsboro begins hearings on city marijuana dispensary regulations – The Portager

On May 20, Streetsboro officials listened to everyone, but not a single person showed up to speak at a public hearing on the city’s plan to regulate marijuana dispensaries and businesses selling unregulated psychoactive substances.

The proposed ordinance, which the city council is expected to approve next month, would classify a business that is both a licensed medical marijuana dispensary and an adult-use dispensary as a single marijuana dispensary. The ordinance would limit all types of clinics to two.

The state has not yet finalized the regulations that will apply to adult clinics, but the draft released states that two such businesses cannot be located within a mile of each other. Streetsboro’s proposed ordinance specifies a distance of 2,000 feet.

The proposed state regulations also limit the types of paraphernalia, cannabinoid compounds and derivatives that can be sold in pharmacies. A consumption representative at Bliss Ohio, a medical marijuana dispensary in Kent, said the state allows medical marijuana dispensaries to sell accessories such as batteries and vape grinders, but prohibits the sale of THC-containing products such as Delta-8 and Delta- 9.

Streetsboro currently has five retail stores whose primary business is the sale of accessories, cannabinoid compounds and derivatives. Streetsboro’s proposed ordinance would reduce that number to three.

Competition is good, but oversaturation of the market can result in businesses failing, Mayor Glenn Broska said, adding that the city does not intend to close the five existing stores, but if one or two of them close, it would not be possible. replaced.

Although unregulated products such as Delta-8 or Delta-9 can be purchased at many grocery stores and gas stations, there is no way to know whether final state regulations will allow their sale in adult health clinics.

There are currently no marijuana dispensaries in Streetsboro. The only other medical marijuana dispensary in the county other than Bliss Ohio is Supergood, located at 554 N. Chestnut St. in Ravenna.

But the city is already looking for its first clinic. Believing that the final state regulations would substantially mirror the draft document, the Streetsboro Planning Commission in March greenlit entrepreneur Tom Hobson’s plans to locate a combined medical and adult clinic in a former leather store at 9156 State Route 14, near the market.

Broska said that if Streetsboro’s proposed ordinance included the state’s one-mile limit, a second clinic could only be located near the city limits.

Concerned about what the final state regulations might bring, different cities are taking different approaches. Bliss co-owners Pamela and Dwayne Siekman asked Kent City Council in April to lift the citywide moratorium on adult clinics, but received a resounding “no.”

As nearby towns took a more proactive approach, the Siekmans saw a real possibility that Bliss would have no choice but to move out of Kent to stay in business.

Aurora also has a 12-month moratorium on marijuana dispensaries. Its regulations, citing the city’s lack of a planning and zoning framework and the lack of final state regulations, were first passed in November 2023.