Elsmere City Council listened to a presentation on medical cannabis licensing at their June 4 caucus meeting.
Medical cannabis will be legal in the state effective Jan. 1, 2025. Each individual city is responsible for creating the zoning regulations to make way or not allow those types of businesses to operate; however, if cities do not have those regulations in place by June 30, the state can begin issuing licenses, and if those businesses start operations, they will be grandfathered against any future regulation, according to the presentation by Sharmili Reddy, executive director of the Planning and Development Services, known as PDS, of Kenton County.
Reddy presented the city council with three options on how to proceed. Elsmere may follow the state legislation via the ballot process and subsequently work with PDS to determine zoning for cannabis operations within city limits. They may also reject the legislation by enacting their own ordinances ahead of the Jan. 1 deadline or put the issue on a ballot for the general public, for which Aug. 13 is the deadline.
Medical cannabis operations comprise five types of permit use: indoor cultivation, which requires agricultural permits and is divided into four tiers according to the cultivation area; processing and production, both of which require industrial permits; dispensary, which is covered by retail permits and safety compliance facilities.
Reddy assured the council that all phases of medical cannabis operations must take place indoors, and they must comply with a 1,000-feet buffer from schools and daycares. While local governments can prohibit businesses from operating in their jurisdictions, they cannot regulate the cannabis use of cardholders—people who have been prescribed medical cannabis by a physician—within city limits.
According to Reddy, medical cannabis usage will be restricted to a few types—edibles, oils and gels are allowed while smoking is prohibited—and as a treatment for specific conditions that include cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Elsmere City Council did not signal an intention to approve or reject cannabis licensing at the caucus meeting. However, councilmember Gloria Gubbs spoke in favor of its medical use while expressing concern about zoning and storage.
“As a retired nurse of almost 30 years, I would say I’m in favor of this for medical purposes,” she said. “It should been done a long time ago, because there are ill people that need that and [medical cannabis] has helped them.”