Approximately two months after a public hearing regarding an ordinance on medical marijuana in the City of Lumberton – and more than three years after voters overwhelmingly approved the use of that item throughout Mississippi – members of the Lumberton Board of Aldermen have approved an ordinance dealing with regulations on that matter.
During the February 6 board meeting, aldermen voted to accept the ordinance, which basically follows regulations that were recently set forth by the Lamar Board of Supervisors and other entities.
“The state requires that we have our own ordinance,” Ward 1 Alderman Kent Crider said. “We tried to (go along with Lamar County’s) ordinance, and there was some discussion there.
“So we finally went and took multiple ordinances, and combined them.”
The ordinance was discussed at a January 2 public hearing at Lumberton City Hall on East Main Avenue. That meeting offered residents and officials the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns on the matter.
“To get something in place, we actually adopted the county’s cannabis ordinance, but we couldn’t do that (word for word),” Mayor Quincy Rogers said in a previous story. “So we had to go back and tweak it, and do it to fit Lumberton, so that’s what we’re doing now.
“This way, the public can hear what we’re actually doing with this new ordinance.”
The ordinance sets forth guidelines on matters such as times of operation and location of any upcoming medical marijuana dispensaries or other related businesses. Although Lumberton does not yet offer any dispensaries, it does boast three grow facilities.
“It does deal with the times that they can be working and so forth,” Crider said. “It does have the stipulation in there that security can be there seven days a week.”
In drafting the ordinance, Lumberton officials borrowed from a similar measure from Memphis, Tennessee, which states that any facility that makes more than $5 million is required to receive a Good Manufacturing Practices certification. That measure outlines the minimum sanitary requirements that must be implemented to make cannabis consumables safe for human consumption.
Fees for that measure include instructor-led training, course material and a GMP Certificate of Completion.
“We figured out that the community we were looking at, were probably using that because they didn’t want (marijuana facilities) to come in,” Crider said. “But we’ve got three growers already here, and we certainly don’t want to run them off.
“We did a little research and found out that even if we required that certification, it would be no more money to the city. The over $1 million that they get for certification would go to that lab, so we did go back and approve (the ordinance) with leaving that paragraph out.”
Crider said officials are unsure whether dispensaries will locate to the city in the near future.
“The state has very large requirements, money-wise, for dispensaries,” he said. “We have one (potential dispensary) that did want to have one in the future, but he said he’d have to do quite a bit of growing.”
In June 2022, members of the Lamar County Board of Supervisors decided not to opt of out the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act, which permits the use of medical marijuana in the state to treat debilitating conditions such as cancer, chronic pain and seizures, among other maladies. Cities and counties have the option to opt out completely – which means no selling or growing at all would be allowed – or to opt out of a portion of the act and allow only certain measures.
Board members then adopted an ordinance which set forth standards and regulations regarding the following facilities and their operations: cannabis cultivation facilities, cannabis processing facilities, cannabis testing facilities, cannabis dispensaries, cannabis transportation entities, cannabis disposal entities and cannabis research facilities in the unincorporated areas of Lamar County.
“The purpose of the ordinance is to outline the county’s permitting process for (medical marijuana, as well as identify what zones within the county that medical cannabis facilities could be located,” county administrator Jody Waits said in a previous story. “It furthers the regulations from the state; we merged those together, and that’s what that ordinance does.”
The ordinance requires an owner or operator of a medical cannabis establishment must apply for and be issued a county permit for the operations of any facility of that nature. Applications must be submitted through the Lamar County Planning Department, which has the authority to approve or deny the permit.
A medical cannabis establishment is not allowed to locate within 1,000 feet of a school, church, childcare facility or any county building, including but not limited to voting precincts/community centers, recreational facilities and fire departments. However, a waiver may be obtained to circumvent that by receiving from the respective facility and applying a waiver from the state.
In that same vein, no medical cannabis dispensary is allowed to locate within a 1,500-foot radius from the main point of entry of that facility to the main point of entry to other dispensary. Hours of operation will be limited to no earlier than 9 a.m. and no later than 7 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays, and no earlier than 1 p.m. and no later than 6 p.m. on Sundays.
All workers in dispensaries are required to have identification, and individuals under the age of 21 are not allowed to work in such a facility. Licenses and permits are required to be posted in an easy-to-see place within the facility.
Mississippi voters overwhelmingly approved the use of medical marijuana during the November 2020 general election, but that effort was soon nullified by the Mississippi Supreme Court. However, the cannabis act was then approved by both chambers of the Mississippi Legislature – the House and the Senate – and was signed into law shortly thereafter by Gov. Tate Reeves.
Entities were given the chance to vote to opt out the act; if no decision is made, the act automatically went into law in that area.
