News

By Sallie James

    When it comes to marijuana or anything related to its use, the city’s Planning and Zoning Board wants Boca Raton to just say no.
    For another year at least.
    At a Sept. 15 meeting, Planning and Zoning Board members voted to recommend the city extend a temporary moratorium on the operation of medical marijuana treatment centers and dispensing or cultivation facilities. The existing moratorium in Boca expires Oct. 28.
    The ordinance aims to give the city extra time to address possible land development regulations should Florida voters approve the use of medical marijuana sometime in the future. Because of the city’s historical prohibition of marijuana use and cultivation, no existing land development regulations address its permitted use.
    “This moratorium will allow staff to research, analyze and study the potential impacts of medical marijuana dispensaries on things such as adjacent uses, surrounding areas, the demand for city services and other aspects,” Boca Raton senior planner Tamashbeen Rahman told the board.
    The issue of legalizing the use of medical marijuana in Florida was rejected in November by Florida voters, but is expected to surface again.
    The Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act of 2014 — which became effective Jan. 1 — authorizes specific physicians to prescribe low-THC cannabis known as “Charlotte’s Web” to certain patients and authorizes a limited number of dispensing organizations to cultivate, process and dispense low-THC marijuana for such use. The 2014 act remains in effect.
    Amendment 2 — which did not pass last year — would have allowed marijuana to be legally given to anyone with a doctor’s referral who has cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, hepatitis C, HIV/AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease or “other conditions for which a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for the patient.”
    Board member Kerry Koen wondered if any property owners in Boca had filed applications with the state Department of Health to become a designated dispensary site.
    Rahman said the state has received five applicants to date, all from Miami-Dade County. No one from Boca Raton has applied, she said.
    Board member Arnold Seville wondered what Boca had done in the past year to research the effects such a dispensary might have on surrounding areas and was upset to learn nothing had been done.
    “We put this moratorium in place a year ago for the purpose of studying what impact this would have on the city of Boca Raton. What studies have been done?” he asked. “I don’t understand why nothing was done.”
    Rahman said the city was waiting to see which nurseries would be chosen by the state.
    “That is when we can see the impact the municipalities are facing,” Rahman said. “At that point we can adopt regulations that would make sense.”