Brent Batten: Medical marijuana lacks supermajority to take hold in Collier

Supporters of medicinal marijuana dispensaries in Collier County appear headed to a hollow victory come Tuesday.

Collier commissioners voted 3-2 in March to change the county’s Land Development Code to allow the dispensaries anyplace zoned to allow a pharmacy.

To make that happen, a series of hoops had to be navigated, including hearings before two advisory committees. The process is complete and the county staff on Tuesday will recommend the commissioners adopt the changes to the code.

But two commissioners, Donna Fiala and Penny Taylor, remain opposed to dispensaries opening in Collier. To take effect, an amendment to the Land Development Code requires four votes.

So even if a three-person majority of the board favors the changes, they would not become law. Not adopting the changes is tantamount to a ban on medicinal marijuana dispensaries, according to County Attorney Jeff Klatzkow.

Fiala and Taylor voice similar concerns over the dispensaries.

Voters approved medicinal marijuana in a 2016 amendment to the state constitution.

The Legislature in 2017 passed rules establishing how the product would be distributed.

Counties and cities have only limited options under those state guidelines. One is to ban dispensaries outright. The other is to allow them wherever pharmacies are permitted.

The state, not local governments, determines how many dispensaries may open in a municipality.

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As it stands, the state would allow 59 dispensaries in the 11-county region that includes Collier and Lee counties. The number could change if more doctors begin treating patients with medicinal marijuana.

At its April 30 meeting, the Collier County Planning Commission refused to endorse the idea of medicinal marijuana dispensaries in Collier.

Planning Commission Chairman Mark Strain noted that once the Land Development Code is changed, dispensaries would require no further permission or public hearings to open anyplace a pharmacy might open.

That would include everything from strip malls to the village centers of gated communities such as Island Walk and Pelican Bay.

“Once this is done, no one will know where they’re popping up until they pop up,” Strain said.

The Planning Commission voted 4-2 against a recommendation to adopt the change.

Neither Taylor nor Fiala opposes the concept of medicinal marijuana.

But dispensaries already located in Lee County deliver to patients in Collier, they both said.

For a seriously ill patient, those who are eligible to receive medicinal marijuana under the state law, delivery might be a better option than going out to get it, Fiala added.

Both commissioners are concerned that medical marijuana will be a precursor to legalized recreational marijuana and that dispensaries would quickly transition to pot shops under that scenario.

“That pathway has been proven in other states,” Taylor said. "The idea that it wouldn’t be that way in Florida is kind of naïve. We’re looking down the road, not just looking at today."

Fiala is further concerned by the lack of limits under the state rules.

“As soon as you allow it, they could be littered all over the place,” she said.

The Land Development Code amendment being recommended by the county staff would prohibit dispensaries within 500 feet of a school, one of the few points of flexibility the state allows counties.

 “Personally, I think it should be 5,000 feet,” said Planning Commission member Joe Schmitt, who voted against the amendment.

Deliveries to the store would have to be made via a garage-type entrance to cut down on the threat of theft, and signs would have to be modest and not something that would appeal to children or promote recreational marijuana use.

The state would have to approve any logo included on a sign.

As it stands, the dispensaries could offer only “edibles,” an ingested form of medicinal marijuana, and oils used in “vaping.”

A judge in Leon County is weighing whether the state must also allow marijuana smoking under the 2016 amendment.

 Orlando Attorney John Morgan, who spearheaded the drive to legalize medicinal marijuana, says the Legislature’s refusal to include smoking as an allowable treatment goes against the will of the voters, who voted 71 percent to 29 percent to legalize it.

Connect with Brent Batten at brent.batten@naplesnews.com, on Twitter @NDN_BrentBatten and at facebook.com/ndnbrentbatten.