[420 Girl]

Orchard City Mayor Don Suppes said he will submit a proposed ordinance to the town board that if adopted would impose a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries in the town.

Suppes said the reason for raising the issue is that the town needs to have time to examine the issues involved and review what other communities are doing before possibly establishing a policy for local licensing and regulation of the state-legal marijuana dispensaries.

Suppes made the announcement at the trustees’ Nov. 2 meeting.

“I had an interesting conversation with a woman today who cornered me and asked what her chances were of opening a marijuana dispensary in Orchard City,” Suppes told the town board. “At first I laughed. I thought she was joking. But, then I realized she was serious.

“She had already spoken to a potential landlord for a lease, and she had talked with the dispensary owner in Delta about setting one up.

“I discussed with her at some length the pros and cons. I don’t think she will pursue it. But the encounter did clue me in that Orchard City is not going to be excluded from this issue.”

Earlier in the meeting during a law enforcement report, County Sheriff Fred McKee was asked his thoughts on dealing with the growing issue of medical marijuana businesses. He too suggested a moratorium to allow time for examining the issue

Suppes continued, “So next month I am going to bring forward an ordinance for a moratorium, and we are going to begin research on the state statutes and what other communities are doing about this.”

The mayor said he had heard there are 85 people in Delta County with prescriptions for medical marijuana.

“There are some definite concerns,” Suppes continued. “I don’t deny that marijuana has some medicinal value. I’m more concerned with the ease of getting prescriptions.

“I don’t’ want to seem judgemental on that point, but I’m also definitely concerned with theft. If you watch the news you see these marijuana dispensaries are constantly being broken into and robbed. There are a lot of issues that need to be resolved, and with our small town staff we don’t necessarily have the controlling authority to handle all of this,” Suppes said

Trustee Gale Doudy added that some dispensary operations are purposely seeking rural areas where the presence of law enforcement is less of an issue for them. Orchard City could be a prime site for such operators being located as it is with a heavily traveled state highway bisecting the town, Doudy said.

Suppes said, “Most other jurisdictions have placed a moratorium on them, so next month we will take up this issue at our meeting. We may have to set up a policy committee and even schedule some special meetings to develop a policy on this. But the first step is to establish a moratorium on this.”

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