BEREA, Ohio -- Berea City Council members voted 4-2 at their Oct. 16 meeting to establish a six-month moratorium on occupancy permits for medical marijuana entrepreneurs who want to establish businesses in the city. Councilmen Gene Zacharyasz and Rick Skoczen voted no, and Councilman Jim Maxwell was absent.
"No building permits, certificates of occupancy or any other permits shall be granted to any business owner who intends to open, use any land or devote any floor area to the business for purposes of the cultivation, processing or retail dispensing of medical marijuana for the period of this moratorium," the council resolution reads. "No valid existing business in the city may expand in any way that would establish cultivation, processing or retail dispensing of medical marijuana for the duration of the moratorium."
STATE BY STATE: Ohio Cannabis News
Prior to the vote, Zacharyasz said he was "not opposed to having medical marijuana in the forms that they're talking about through the state guidelines" but asked about possible future restrictions the city could legislate if recreational marijuana use ever becomes legal in Ohio. Law Director Barb Jones replied that without knowing what future state legislation would say, it is "a little more difficult to answer with any certainty."
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