LAKEWOOD, Ohio — Lakewood City Council has now placed a temporary ban on pot shops nearly a month after voters passed Issue 2 to legalize recreational marijuana.
“We just want to make sure that we get our ducks in a row as a city,” said Council President John Litten. “We just want to make sure we have the right safeguards in place to protect everybody in our city.”
Back in 2016, Council President John Litten said the city passed a ban when medical marijuana was legalized.
“We needed I guess, buy ourselves some time so that we could work through the logistics of how it was going to work in the city of Lakewood,” said Litten.
When News 5's Remi Murrey spoke to one resident in favor of marijuana being legalized here in Lakewood, they told News 5 they hope the moratorium doesn’t last too long because they know some people voted for it due to its convenience.
“If people don’t have insurance or something like that, then they can’t get a doctor to prescribe them the conditions that they would need to then get medical marijuana if other medications aren’t working for them, and if they can’t leave the city due to their disabilities then they wouldn’t be able to in here profit off of that,” said Lakewood resident, Elliot Lowry.
Litten made it clear they are not trying to delay the process.
But, he said he’s not sure when the state will have its tweaks to the law finalized.
“If eventually it lifts, then we would eventually have it here, but it just extends the timeframe,” said Lowry.
“I think Lakewood is a marketplace that a lot of businesses want to be a part of, and so I think most, most good businesses are willing to wait and make sure we get this right from a law or ordinance perspective,” said Litten.
