Shangri-La Dispensary in Delphos is one of 98 facilities in Ohio licensed to sell recreational marijuana as of Tuesday. A proposed measure to enact a temporary moratorium on recreational marijuana sales in Delphos failed to secure enough votes to pass Monday.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
DELPHOS — Recreational marijuana sales will now take place in Delphos after a proposed prohibition of commercial cultivation and sales failed to garner sufficient votes from city council members Monday.
A third reading of an ordinance originally proposed by Councilor Andrew Grothouse that would have instituted a two-year ban was held at Monday night’s meeting. Since the legislation’s language framed it as an emergency, it would have come into effect immediately if passed, but passage required five out of the seven council members to vote in favor.
The ordinance had been amended during Monday’s discussions to reduce the duration of the moratorium from two years to nine months, but when the vote was taken, only four out of seven council members voted in favor of the moratorium.
Attempts to reach council members for comment were not successful.
“My stance is, I thought two years did seem too long,” Delphos Mayor Andre McConnahea said. “My true intention for a moratorium was to learn from other communities, and I thought nine months seemed like a reasonable time frame. But as of now, recreational marijuana sales are legal in the city of Delphos, and the administration respects the process that brought this to pass.”
McConnahea, who was in attendance at Monday’s meeting, does not have a vote when it comes to city ordinances, as that is reserved to council members.
Delphos cannabis dispensary Shangri-La is one of 98 facilities in the state to receive recreational sales licenses. Shangri-La CEO Nevil Patel issued a statement regarding the start of recreational sales in the state.
“Shangri-La’s staff have been training and preparing for months in anticipation of adult-use sales today in Ohio,” he said in the statement. “We’re prepared to provide recreational use customers with the safe, quality access to cannabis we’ve been delivering to our medical customers.”
As for safety services in Delphos, Safety Service Director James Mehaffie does not anticipate any changes in approach with recreational marijuana now available.
“As far as approaching traffic stops or anything like that, they’ll be using the same common sense and the same caution in doing that,” he said. “I don’t know that it really changes a whole lot. Obviously, whatever the state requirements and state laws are, those will be enforced.”
