The separation remained clear.
The Mansfield City Council voted Tuesday night to lift the ban on medical marijuana and limit the number of dispensaries in the city.
There was a sharp disagreement before these votes, with the Council voting 6-2 in favour of the bans and 5-3 in favour of limiting the number of dispensaries to three.
Council members El Akuchie and Deborah Mount voted against lifting the ban on medical marijuana and strongly opposed the opening of dispensaries in Mansfield.
Akuchie pointed to the city council voting to introduce the bans in 2017, “by people who understood the dangerous impact of cannabis on our community.” He said it was the right thing to do then and it remains the right thing to do now.
“I would say right is wrong and wrong is right if I voted to repeal this law,” Akuchie said, adding that current council leader Phil Scott was a member in 2017.
“They saw the green locomotive of cannabis companies barreling toward Mansfield and voted to put up a giant red stop sign,” he said. “They saw the elusive green dollars, but they didn’t fall for it.”
Akuchie, a pastor, wondered how many souls were saved by this decision.
“My vote is to keep that stop sign up,” he said. “I’m not going to roll out the red carpet for the cannabis industry. If I do that, I’m violating my own conscience. I know that one day I’ll have to answer to God.”
City Councilor Stephanie Zader, who announced her resignation on September 30, said Akuchie had missed the point.
“We don’t vote on our own morals. We don’t vote on our religious beliefs,” she said. “We don’t vote on our political affiliation.”
Zader said members voted to save residents the minimum 40-minute drive to the nearest pharmacy. She said the pharmacies are regulated and will help cancer patients and veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, pain and other ailments.
“Are we going to ban prescription drugs because they also kill so many people?” asked Zader.
Mayor Jodie Perry intervened, telling the city council that recreational cannabis dispensaries could now open in Mansfield after a six-month moratorium on dispensaries was rejected by a 5-3 vote in June.
“If this repeal were not implemented, it would not prevent the opening of dispensaries at all. They would then only be intended for recreational use,” she said.
Scott, who is again council president, said he took offense at Akuchie’s use of his name in reference to the 2017 vote.
“First of all, I did not vote for this bill. I was sitting in this chair and I could not vote for it,” said Scott, who can only vote in a tie. “Secondly, I regret that we let this bill pass on first reading, that we did not do our due diligence and let it pass on two or three readings.”
Akuchie apologized but reiterated his stance.
“I am who I am, God’s servant and son,” he said.
Councilwoman Cynthia Antoinette Daley said while she agrees with Akuchie, she would vote to lift the bans because she has heard from people who say marijuana helps them with their ailments.
Mount spoke next.
“I think we know from previous comments how the votes are going to turn out,” she said. “The speed with which these bills were rushed through has been very concerning to me.”
“The investors had a timeline, but this will be at the expense of the people. This is something that history will look back on.”
Zader denied Mount’s claim and said the bills were discussed at four meetings.
Zader asked about the amendment in the bill to limit the number of issuing offices to three.
“We proposed four, and you voted for it at the last meeting,” she told the mayor, “and now you want to reduce the number to three.”
Perry referred to two bills that the council had moved earlier in the meeting. These were bills related to licensing and zoning.
“We missed the schedule,” the mayor said. “Without further zoning, I guess we wanted to limit the extent of potential conflict with a residential area.”
Perry said that even without zoning, state regulations would apply, including requiring dispensaries to be one mile apart and at least 500 feet from schools, parks and libraries.
Zader said that limiting the number of pharmacies to three would limit the number of locations. She, Aurelio Diaz and Akuchie voted against the lower number.
Council was originally scheduled to vote on zoning regulations for marijuana dispensaries at its meeting Tuesday. Members held a special meeting last week to discuss the remaining issues after receiving the proposed zoning regulations.
“We basically took a step back, had the outside counsel and our law firm review our codified ordinances, the ORC (Ohio Revised Code), as well as the rules, and essentially concluded that we did not follow all of the guidelines for public hearings on zoning,” Perry said last week. “That was not intentional. We were operating under a different assumption.”
The mayor told council on Tuesday that she hopes to present the new zoning to members by November.
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