Reefer madness?

Are medical-marijuana dispensaries coming to DeLand, or will changes to the city’s existing law against them go up in smoke?

A deadlocked DeLand Planning Board couldn’t recommend a change to the City of DeLand’s existing rule that prevents medical-marijuana dispensaries from setting up shop within city limits. The Planning Board, however, was open to the idea of medical-marijuana processing facilities opening in areas zoned for industrial development.

How did we get here?

In 2017, following the voter-approved change to Florida law allowing the sale of medical marijuana, the CIty of DeLand had a choice: allow dispensaries for DeLandites who are approved to purchase cannabis for medicinal purposes, or keep them out of the city.

Further, in 2017, state law required that the City Commission either allow dispensaries wherever the city already allowed pharmacies, or just say no to medical marijuana entirely.

Fast-forward to 2021: Cookies, a medical-marijuana grower and distributor operating in around 20 states, purchased a large property near the DeLand airport for cultivating and shipping cannabis. While Cookies is growing cannabis right here in DeLand, the company cannot legally sell it to DeLandites whose medical conditions qualify them to buy it.

In November, representatives from Cookies came to the DeLand City Commission to express their desire to open a dispensary in DeLand.

“There’s a myriad of use cases for cannabis that we’re not here to talk about, but there’s enough of them present in the city that I think there’s a need for people to be able to access that easily and safely,” Cookies representative Bob Schliesman told city leaders. “That is the main purpose of what we’re here to do — we’re here to give safe cannabis to consumers and guide consumers through that process.”

The state tightly regulates dispensaries. People who purchase cannabis for medicinal uses aren’t buying drugs from dealers in dingy alleyways. Customers are entering clean, professional retail spaces, Schliesman said, and they’re able to do so only if they’ve gotten an OK from a licensed medical professional.

“If you were to come to one of our stores, the first thing that happens is I need to ask you for your ID and your medical ID,” Schliesman said. “I need to type that into our state-mandated system which will say, ‘I’m allowed to sell you this much … .’”

Without a medical ID, he said, people can’t just walk into the store, wander around a showroom or ask to purchase cannabis. Instead, dispensaries like those operated by Cookies are focused on ensuring people get the exact product they need to help them.

Remarking positively on Cookies’ presentation, city leaders directed planning staff to work on changes to the city’s code that would allow dispensaries within DeLand city limits.

Planning Board’s puff and pass

City staff brought those changes to the Planning Board Dec. 13, and a few hang-ups prevented the board from wholeheartedly approving them.

“What’s it going to do to the culture of DeLand?” Planning Board Member Don Liska asked.

The changes came in two parts. The first would allow medical-marijuana dispensaries everywhere in DeLand where pharmacies are allowed to operate, and another sought to clarify where medical-marijuana cultivation facilities, like Cookies at 2000 Brunswick Lane, can be.

After some discussion, the four members of the seven-member Planning Board who attended the meeting — Jeremy Owens, Virginia Comella, Liska and Harper Hill — deadlocked in a 2-2 vote over whether to approve allowing dispensaries in DeLand.

Dissenting members didn’t like that dispensaries would have to be allowed wherever pharmacies are currently allowed.

“… This would allow it in zoning … literally in people’s neighborhoods,” Hill said. “I just don’t see voting in favor of that this evening.”

That rule comes from state statutes, which dictate that municipalities can’t regulate dispensaries differently than they would pharmacies. That was the hang-up the City Commission previously faced, since, according to City Attorney Darren Elkind, “Our zoning code allows pharmacies in a lot of places.”

So it came down to two options: Allow dispensaries wherever pharmacies are allowed, or continue to ban them.

“Those are your two choices,” Elkind said. “Allow them or don’t allow them.”

And while the Planning Board was exclusively dealing with medical marijuana, members’ feelings about cannabis more broadly still came out.

Liska said he believes medical-grade cannabis can be quite potent, and while alcohol can also inebriate people, he is comfortable with DeLand being a cannabis-free enclave if it keeps DeLand “special.”

He also expressed concern that cannabis businesses could be targeted by criminals.

Owens, however, made the case that cannabis carries a stigma that many completely legal — and more dangerous — substances don’t.

“Pharmacies at CVS give out a lot worse stuff,” Owens said. “The pharmacies do have products that are more dangerous than what we’re talking about tonight.”

While the Planning Board was unable to recommend that the City Commission approve dispensaries opening in DeLand, the board did approve, by a 3-1 vote, allowing medical marijuana cultivation facilities in areas zoned light industrial.

The board was not in favor of staff ’s suggestion to allow processing plants in commercial infill areas zoned C-2AC, for fear that any shuttered grocery store could become a cannabis-processing plant.

The only dissenting vote on that measure was Hill. Planning Board Members Alfred Neumann, Buz Nesbit and Nora Lewis were absent.

With the Planning Board’s recommendations made, the City Commission is expected to discuss whether to approve the new rules during the meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 3. The Planning Board is advisory only; the City Commission can heed its recommendations, or not.

With the City Commission vote coming up, Cookies’ Schliesman said he wants to see DeLand challenge the common stereotype about who uses cannabis.

“I would like to see DeLand start taking pride in the fact that we are growing some of the best cannabis in Florida,” he told The Beacon. “You don’t have to fit into some stereotype to be a user of cannabis, you can just be a normal person who wants to feel better.”

A local perspective

Medical marijuana was legalized by Florida voters in 2016. Since then, thousands of Floridians have been approved by medical professionals to use cannabis to treat chronic conditions. Some people smoke it; some people ingest it in the form of sweet treats.

Mark Connolly is one DeLandite who relies on medical marijuana to make life easier.

“The medical marijuana helps me with the pain from arthritis,” he said. “At night it helps me sleep. It stimulates my appetite.”

Connolly lives near Downtown DeLand, but to get the medical marijuana his doctor prescribes — and to get the best deal — he has to drive to Orange City, Daytona Beach