By Karl Fortier. CREATED 5:54 PM
BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. - Voters will decide on November 4th whether or not to legalize marijuana for medical use in Florida, but Wednesday the Bonita Springs City Council voted to create a ban on smoking medical marijuana in public.
The city council also voted to have city staff create regulations that would limit how many marijuana dispensaries can be located in Bonita, and how far they should be from schools, parks and libraries. Mayor Ben Nelson says taking preemptive measures before the November vote just makes sense.
"If you put in reasonable restrictions right from the beginning, and you limit the use to let's say 3 or 4 establishments, it's proven time and time again, those communities that do that really don't ever have any problems again and the subjuect just kind of goes away," Nelson said.
The mayor says council members did their homework and studied how city governments in California handled medical marijuana use in their communities. He says that those cities that enacted common sense regulations have fared well, and he hopes that Bonita Springs can follow suit.
"The facilities that they ended up with were good, clean, safe, and not a hang-out for criminals or anything like that," he said.
The Bonita City Council also voted to adopt a "zoning in progress" regulation, meaning that if land use ordinances for marijuana dispensaries aren't put in place before the November vote, any zoning the city comes up with will apply to those seeking to put a dispensary in the city.
http://www.jrn.com/fox4now/news/Bon...-to-regulate-medical-marijuana-275519381.html
BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. - Voters will decide on November 4th whether or not to legalize marijuana for medical use in Florida, but Wednesday the Bonita Springs City Council voted to create a ban on smoking medical marijuana in public.
The city council also voted to have city staff create regulations that would limit how many marijuana dispensaries can be located in Bonita, and how far they should be from schools, parks and libraries. Mayor Ben Nelson says taking preemptive measures before the November vote just makes sense.
"If you put in reasonable restrictions right from the beginning, and you limit the use to let's say 3 or 4 establishments, it's proven time and time again, those communities that do that really don't ever have any problems again and the subjuect just kind of goes away," Nelson said.
The mayor says council members did their homework and studied how city governments in California handled medical marijuana use in their communities. He says that those cities that enacted common sense regulations have fared well, and he hopes that Bonita Springs can follow suit.
"The facilities that they ended up with were good, clean, safe, and not a hang-out for criminals or anything like that," he said.
The Bonita City Council also voted to adopt a "zoning in progress" regulation, meaning that if land use ordinances for marijuana dispensaries aren't put in place before the November vote, any zoning the city comes up with will apply to those seeking to put a dispensary in the city.
http://www.jrn.com/fox4now/news/Bon...-to-regulate-medical-marijuana-275519381.html
