Collier to reconsider allowing medical marijuana dispensaries

Nearly two years after Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment to expand access to medical marijuana, Collier County commissioners are once again mulling whether to allow dispensaries. 

Commissioners on Tuesday voted 3-2 to have county staff bring back the amendment to Collier's land development codes that would permit dispensaries on land that is zoned to allow pharmacies.

But with such a change requiring at least four votes in favor of the amendment, it is unclear if the renewed push to allow dispensaries will come to fruition when the issue comes back before commissioners in December or January.

Earlier this year commissioners couldn't muster the votes to move forward with the code changes.

As has been the case in the past, commissioners Donna Fiala and Penny Taylor on Tuesday voted against bringing back the amendment. Both have pointed out that patients can have medical marijuana delivered to their doors from a Lee County dispensary.

"You want to help them," Fiala said, referring to patients who testified Tuesday about how medical marijuana has alleviated some of their medical issues.

"But how do you stop other people from taking advantage of something that's simple to help people that really, really need it. There's the question."

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Taylor said after the meeting that one of her concerns is that under the current rules the county does not have "enough leeway" to say where medical marijuana can be dispensed.

"We have no control," she said. "We don't have zoning that says this is specifically for dispensaries."

After Florida voters amended the state constitution in 2016, state lawmakers gave cities and counties two options: Either ban dispensaries outright or treat them like pharmacies.

This means dispensaries in Collier would be permitted where zoning allows for pharmacies, said planning and zoning director Mike Bosi. Dispensaries would not be allowed within 500 feet of a school.

The state has set limits on the number of dispensaries that can open in each region of the state, but not in individual counties. The law divides Florida into five sections. Each section is allowed a certain number of dispensaries based on its population.

Taylor said, with a new Legislature and governor set to be elected Nov. 6, she expects state lawmakers to take up the issue again.

"The discussion isn't over," she said. "The people can still get this medicine."

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Commissioners put in place a temporary ban on the dispensaries shortly after the 2016 vote to amend the state constitution. They said they wanted time for state lawmakers to give them authority to cap how many dispensaries could open in the county.

Commissioner Burt Saunders said Tuesday he was initially one of the proponents of delaying the issue and waiting for more guidance from state legislators. But with commissioners unlikely to get that, he said, it was time to act.

"We've had these types of discussions now for a year," he said.

Saunders pointed to the testimony from medical marijuana advocates Tuesday as proof of the need to allow dispensaries.

"If you genuinely believe the folks that are out here, then I think the vote is fairly simple," he said. "We should help these folks."

For nearly an hour, advocates for medical marijuana made impassioned, at times tear-filled, pleas to commissioners to allow dispensaries in Collier. Some called out Taylor and Fiala by name.

"You have no right to say, 'Not our county,' " said Collier resident Susan Bailey Dunn, 57. "The majority has voted, and they have spoken. Listen. Act. And do the right thing."

She urged commissioners to "stop prolonging something that should've been initiated two years ago."

"Enough is enough," Bailey Dunn added. "Self-correct."

Jeffrey DeMond, a Cape Coral resident and Navy veteran, told commissioners about how medical marijuana helped him with various medical issues and stressed other veterans' need for it.

"There are too many veterans on too many prescription pills, and too many of them are getting overlooked," he said. "And too many of (them) are dying. And they don't have this opportunity."

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Dispensaries in Collier are needed to allow patients easier access, he said.

"In Naples, Marco Island and the surrounding communities, there are a lot of patients that have to drive all the way to North Fort Myers," said DeMond, 51.

Many, too, expressed frustration with the lag between voters approving the constitutional amendment and commissioners acting on the issue.

"This should be a done deal," said Lisa Colando, 44, who lives in Collier and runs a medical cannabis magazine. "None of us should even be here today."

She pointed to the more than 70 percent of voters who passed the medical marijuana amendment statewide in 2016. Voters in Collier also strongly supported the amendment, 64 percent to 36 percent.

"This is not about getting high," she said. "This is about getting healthy."