Medical cannabis on table in Jax Council committees Tuesday

It was on. Then it was off. And now it’s back on.

The endless summer of trying to get a medical marijuana moratorium passed in Duval County continues Tuesday, with two committees, Rules and Land Use and Zoning, taking a hard look at Ordinance 2015-485, which would issue “a temporary moratorium on locating Cultivation and Dispensing Facilities within the City, to allow the City time to create appropriate local regulations and standards consistent with state law and regulations.”

The moratorium would be 90 days long for cultivation of Charlotte’s Web, and 120 days long for dispensing.

The language is not all that dissimilar, in some respects, to the language of 2015-436, the previous moratorium bill that was fast-tracked through Council, only to be repealed a fortnight hence.

The bill, sponsored by Councilman Bill Gulliford, contends that “the uncontrolled siting of Cultivation and Dispensing Facilities could pose serious adverse effects and cause irreparable harm to the public health, safety and welfare of the City of Jacksonville” and that the city’s current laws “do not adequately address the potential social, scientific, economic, infrastructure, health and related impacts associated with the use and likely to be proposed for location.”

Thus, “there is a need to restrict the location and construction of Cultivation and Dispensing Facilities within the City of Jacksonville to enable the City to fully study this issue and review appropriate legislation to address the increasing public concern about the potential location of these Facilities within the City of Jacksonville.”

An “in-depth review” of current laws is promised, and the cultivation moratorium would apply, as Councilwoman Lori Boyer suggested in the previous debate, to properties not zoned for agricultural use.

Regarding dispensing of cannabis, the moratorium would ban that anywhere in Duval County until or unless it was repealed by Council.

Interested parties will get two chances to talk Cannabis in the St. James Building Tuesday. Rules meets at 1:30; LUZ at 5:00 p.m.