Aug. 20 - Monmouth City Council is working toward prohibiting recreational cannabis retail dispensaries from operating in the Maple City.
City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher said there was a discussion at Monday night’s council meeting on whether or not council wants to allow the retail sale of recreational cannabis at dispensaries.
Legal marijuana sales kick off in the Land of Lincoln on Jan. 1. Local municipalities have the right to decide if legal cannabis businesses will operate in their jurisdictions, but citizens aged 21 and up will still be able to legally possess up to 30 grams on their person in Monmouth.
“It’s just a community value statement. We do not want to allow dispensaries within the city limits. People can still legally bring in marijuana from legal dispensaries and smoke it in” their residences, Steinbrecher said.
“It’s just the retail dispensary” that Monmouth is looking to not allow, he added. “There’s some conversation about the sales tax that could be imposed on a retail outlet, but I think it was more of a community value statement more than anything else. They were willing to forego any sales tax revenue” from dispensaries.
Robert Connelly - The Register-Mail