A proposed one-year ban on new marijuana shops was defeated this week on a 4-3 City Council vote.
Opposed: Mayor Brenda Moore, Pro-Tem Annie Boensch, Bill Ostash, Michael Flores.
In favor: Monique Lamar Silvia, who made the motion, with Michael Balls and George Copeland.
Absent on Feb. 3: Reggie Williams II, Priscilla Garcia.
The 2020 council that decided 8-1 to allow dispensaries (John Milne opposed) included Moore, Boensch, Ostash, Balls and Williams.
Since then, Williams and Balls have aired misgivings on their decisions. They have cited marijuana use among young people, Williams speaking from law enforcement and Balls as a Big Brothers mentor. At the same time, they have acknowledged that young people get cannabis from adult friends and even family, not from the city’s dozen current shops, which follow far stronger age standards than many party stores with beer, booze and loose cigarettes.
Silvia and Copeland potentially could enlist with Balls and Williams, making Garcia the swing vote. In her only cannabis ballot of her tenure, she supported the conversion of the former Hamilton Bakery site on Gratiot, which places her with Moore, Boensch, Ostash and Flores.
Michigan voters passed 2018 legalization with 56 percent in favor. Of more than 500 local communities, about 400 are not allowing sales. Saginaw joins the other 100 — including nearly all the older cities, even conservative Grand Rapids — that have given the go-ahead. Shared revenue from the 10 percent state excise tax provides about $60,000 per dispensary per year.
Veterans Balls and Williams aren’t the only members with mixed feelings. Copeland voted in favor on the zoning board, but against on the council.
Meanwhile, Moore and Ostash are delegates on the planning commission, and they noted that no grievances have come forth since the early onset, when Saginaw High parents successfully blocked a location at Sheridan and Webber.
Silvia’s proposal first was outlined earlier this year by Joyce Seals — Board of Education trustee, and chair of the county’s Health Equity Council and also the Saginaw County Prevention Coalition, created as the Family Youth Initiative under retired Probate Judge Faye Harrison.
Seals reported “shocking” levels of use in middle school and down into elementary, backed by stories of children finding and consuming gummy products left by negligent elders.
Group members frown upon any sort of drug use and abuse, while airing specific concerns about THC’s health developmental effects on children and teens, which may not be general knowledge because marijuana is not viewed as a “hard” drug like heroin, crack cocaine or even excessive alcohol, or fatally dangerous like today’s prescription painkillers.
An attempt to shut down Saginaw’s dozen existing dispensaries would create expensive havoc in legalities, the former mayor acknowledged, but a moratorium could give the community a chance to re-think the future.
East Side ‘reefer redlined?’
If a dispensary is completed at the old La Familia restaurant, Genesee at Remington, that will be the fourth for the East Side, joining:
- Premier Provisioning, 910 E. Genesee
- OUI-D Shop, 3465 Sheridan
- Kush Kween, 2225 E. Genesee
Meanwhile, the recent opening of Elite Cannabis at State and Mason, in a former 7-Eleven, builds the West Side count to eight, also including:
- Lume Cannabis, 3446 State
- Sozo Saginaw, 2617 Bay
- JARS Cannabis, 2301 N. Michigan
- Courtside Gardens, 1321 Court
- Primo Provisioning, 1205 Court
- Skymint Saginaw, 700 Gratiot
- Premier Cannabis, 1034 Gratiot
Sozo and Lume are especially located near the city border to draw residents from suburbs that do not allow marijuana sales.
To make a purchase is similar to visiting a neighborhood party store for beer and/or booze. The difference is that a customer remains in a waiting area, similar to a doctor’s office, until their turn to enter one-by-one.
City planners crafted a 1,000-foot minimum distance from schools that are open and operating, but the limit is only 100 feet from churches. Zoning officials said there are too many churches for a stricter rule in that regard. None of the locations to date is next to a church or near a school, although Premier on the East Side is adjacent to the soup kitchen.
The one “sin tax” that is more severe than the 10 percent for marijuana is $2 for a pack of regular cigarettes and 32 percent for other forms of nicotine. State annual revenue collections this year, rounded off, are:
- $1.3 billion for lottery
- $1.2 billion for gasoline
- $830 million for tobacco
- $130 for beer, liquor, wine
- $111 million for marijuana
This does not mean pot has become nearly as common as booze. The closeness in the dollar figures is because the tax for a Bud remains far lower than for a bud, so to speak. But the usage gap is narrowing.
To view the council vote, click here.
