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Akron Council approves medical marijuana rules



During the May 1 Akron City Council meeting, Highland Square resident Leah Levinstein spoke in favor of the City of Akron’s plan to allow medical marijuana businesses to operate in the city. Levinstein said her son could benefit from the use of medical marijuana for a seizure disorder. Photo: Kathleen Folkerth

DOWNTOWN AKRON — When Ohio’s medical marijuana industry becomes a reality in the next 18 months, Akron is prepared to allow such businesses to operate in the city limits.
Akron City Council unanimously approved an ordinance May 1 that will enact regulations allowing the businesses to set up shop to cultivate, process, dispense and test the drug. Facilities can’t be located in residential areas or within 500 feet of a school, church, library, playground or park. The ordinance also requires Council to issue a special conditional use to a medical marijuana business before it can operate in the city limits. It would also require a multi-step local licensing process and allow the Akron Police Department to inspect any medical marijuana facility at any time.
City officials also stressed that smoking or combustion of marijuana for medical purposes will be prohibited. Ohio law will allow the drug to be used in the forms of oils, tinctures, plant material, edibles and patches and only for about two dozen medical conditions that include cancer, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis, as recommended by a physician.
During public hearings on the ordinance that took place that day, a handful of local residents voiced their support for the measure. Among them was Highland Square resident Leah Levinstein, who said her 7-year-old son experiences seizures due to tuberous sclerosis complex, for which he is on several medications with side effects. Her son’s neurologist in Cincinnati has recommended marijuana as a potential treatment.
“We would like to have safe access to medical marijuana,” she said.
Also speaking in support of the ordinance was Kate Ols, of Copley, who spoke on behalf of several individuals who are interested in establishing a Level 1 cultivator business in the Akron area. She said the business could provide about 40 jobs and bring in thousands of dollars in sales taxes for the city.
Councilman Jeff Fusco (D-at large) said Council had to act quickly on approving the regulations because applications for cultivators will be available in June and provisional licenses will likely be issued in September.
“We could see conditional use requests six months from now,” he said.
Councilman Rich Swirsky (D-Ward 1) said there has been research that shows that states that allow use of medical marijuana have lower rates of opioid abuse.
“There’s a time and a place for everything,” he said. “This is a measure whose time has come.”
Approval of the ordinance also repeals a moratorium on medical marijuana businesses that Council passed last September after Ohio House Bill 523 went into effect. Ohio must have a functioning program for production, sale and consumption of medical marijuana in place by Sept. 8, 2018, according to city officials.
In other business this week, Council moved forward on live streaming of Council meetings through an amended contract with WhiteSpace Creative. The ordinance passed by a vote of 9-4, with Council members Marilyn Keith (D-Ward 8), Bob Hoch (D-Ward 6), Donnie Kammer (D-Ward 7) and Mike Freeman (D-Ward 9) voting against it.
Proponent Tara Mosley-Samples (D-Ward 5) has streamed meetings via Facebook in recent weeks and reported that hundreds of people viewed the proceedings. She said the effort is all about local government being open to the public.
“This is what the 21st century looks like,” she said. “There are governments across the country that are live streaming. It’s not just my residents who are watching Facebook Live.”
Freeman said his vote against the ordinance was because how the meetings will be live streamed has not yet been identified. In a previous meeting, WhiteSpace’s Bob Zajac, who provides public relations and communications services for Council, said meetings could be streamed via a YouTube channel.
Council President Keith said she has been working since last year with Zajac and the city’s information technology department to try to bring Council up to speed on its use of video. Recently, videotaping of committee meetings began and they are posted the following the day along with the evening meeting video on Council’s website. Keith said she supports live streaming but wants to see if it can be done through Council’s website.
Fusco supported the ordinance but added he’s not sure if Facebook is an appropriate medium for streaming meetings.
Councilwoman Linda Omobien (D-at large) added her support.
“I’m not a social media guru, by any means, but we should utilize every means possible” to communicate with residents, she said. “The message is getting out and people are taking advantage of it.”
Zajac had previously said he doesn’t recommend using Wi-Fi for live streaming and that Council chambers should be hard-wired. The legislation did not include a time frame for live streaming to begin.
Also this week, Council conducted public hearings on and approved a conditional use request from Pay It Forward for Pets to operate an overnight pet boarding facility at 1496 N. Portage Path in the Merriman Valley. According to the organization’s website, it plans to start offering boarding, as well as pet day care, May 15 in the former Freshway Market space.
Keith, in whose ward the nonprofit is located, said Valley merchants are receptive to the new business, which also will include a resale shop.
Also passed this week was a resolution offered by Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan in support of an amendment to the current state budget bill that creates a program to address abandoned and blighted commercial and industrial properties. If approved, the amendment would result in $50 million in the state for demolition or remediation of the properties.
James Hardy, Horrigan’s chief of staff, said the program would provide “more tools for the toolbox” for the city to deal with such properties.
Council will next meet May 8 at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers on the third floor of the Akron Municipal Building, 166 S. High St. Committee meetings are scheduled to begin with the Green and Sustainability Committee at 12:45 p.m. that day, also in Chambers.