Carlisle extends medical marijuana ban for 1 year

Carlisle has approved another moratorium on medical marijuana businesses.

Village Council approved Tuesday another one-year moratorium on any cultivation, processing, or retail businesses.

Village Manager Julie Duffy said the new ban will start on Aug. 10, just before the current ban expires on Aug. 12.

Duffy said the new moratorium will not include an exception for a company who sought a large-scale cultivation license from the state and was going to build their facility on a 10-acre parcel to be purchased in the village-owned business park if it was awarded a state license. The village created that exception in June 2017 so that it could sell the parcel for about $300,000. Anthony DiLorenzo, of Ohio Craft Cultivators, had previously said the costs to build the growing facility would be $4 million to $5 million for the first phase and would have created 20 to 25 jobs.

In late November 2017, Ohio awarded a dozen large-scale grower licenses today from a pool of 109 applicants, but Ohio Craft Cultivators LLC, which planned to locate a growing facility in the Carlisle Business Park, was not among the winners.

Ohio Craft Cultivators approached council in October 2017 about expanding the exception to allow a processing facility. However, that request prompted public outcry during a hearing and council never brought the request back for consideration or a vote. The proposed processing building would be on the same site as the proposed cultivation building in the Carlisle Business Park and would also have about 20 employees, according to DiLorenzo.

Had the cultivation facility deal gone through, officials said the proceeds would allow the village to pay off the $300,000 in remaining debt for the business park infrastructure improvements six years early.

In addition to Carlisle, other communities such as Fairfield, Hamilton, Liberty Twp., Franklin, Middletown, Trenton, Ross Twp., Fairfield Twp. and West Chester Twp. all have moratoriums rules blocking marijuana-related businesses.

The city of Monroe does not have a ban and has one company that has been awarded a state license as a small-scale cultivator and another group that has been awarded a state license for a dispensary. Another company was awarded a provisional dispensary license to be located in the village of Seven Mile.

However, after the announcement of a dispensary to be located in Seven Mile, the Village Council enacted an emergency nine-month moratorium on June 16. The village previously had a 60-day moratorium that expired in February.

The new ban will prevent the company, 127 OH LLC from building a secure facility that is estimated to cost nearly $2 million on the south end of the village off of U.S. 127.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed into law in 2016 a bill that legalizes marijuana for medicinal uses, including cancer, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder or chronic pain. It allows multiple forms of medical marijuana to be sold, such as edibles, oils, patches and vaporizing, but smoking the plant is not allowed. Neither are home-grow operations. The facilities awarded licenses are required by law to be in operation this September.

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