The latest moratorium was approved Tuesday to the current six-month moratorium approved in January. The extension will take the moratorium into late October. This will be the third moratorium council has imposed since last year.
However, an agenda item to approve text amendments to the zoning code that regulate medical marijuana was tabled by council for further review as part of the moratorium.
Councilman Mike Cope said he wanted to continue the discussion on the issue, which other council members agreed.
Council has been concerned about the issue since last year when a new rule by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy would increase the number of medical marijuana dispensary licenses from one to seven in the district that includes Warren, Clinton and Clermont counties.
The state Board of Pharmacy approved adding 73 more dispensary licenses on April 19, 2021 to the 57 current licenses already created. That would bring the total of licenses that could be issued to 130 after the next application round is completed.
Warren, Clinton and Clermont counties are in one of the 31 dispensary zones in the state. There is one dispensary in the zone which is located in Lebanon, About Wellness Ohio, 1525 Genntown Drive, Suite B. The next closest dispensary would be Strawberry Fields, 300 N. Main St. in Monroe.
During a public hearing Tuesday, resident Peter St. Jean and his wife Amy, urged council not to allow any more medical marijuana businesses in Lebanon.
Mason Councilwoman Kathy Grossmann said she was “disappointed that this was only a moratorium and surprised it’s not a prohibition.”
Grossmann likened medical marijuana businesses to “a Trojan horse” and said council needed to protect Lebanon. “We (Mason council) zoned it out,” she said.
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