CEDAR SPRINGS, Mich. -- Cedar Springs has banned recreational marijuana sales with a new city ordinance.
However, officials say the move doesn't mean they are against marijuana in the city. Possession will be legal statewide after Proposal 1 goes into effect, regardless of city laws regarding sales.
“It’s simply not true that the city is anti-marijuana in any way,” said City Manager Mike Womack.
Womack tells FOX 17 the city plans to temporarily ban sales with the new ordinance, and reconsider that plan once state regulations for recreational marijuana sales are established. Womack says they don't want to attempt to regulate sales ahead of potential state-level requirements, which aren't expected for a couple more years.
Womack says this is Cedar Springs' attempt to learn from Michigan's past, especially considering the numerous medical marijuana sales issues that arose a few years ago.
“We want to do so within a framework that we think is going to fair to everybody, and will meet with what the state regulations will be at this point. We just don’t know what that’s going to be like,” Womack said.
Womack says they also want to allow input from the community, and banning the sale of marijuana for the time being allows the city to better plan how to go about that.
That was surprising to some people in the audience at Thursday night's City Council meeting.
“I was told they were actually going to ban this,” Christina Allison said.
When Christina Allison found out they were banning the sale of marijuana specifically, and planning to get community input before making it legal, she was relieved.
“They were gonna listen to their people. They just wanted to wait, and listen to their people, so they can write a proper ordinance,” Allison said.
Womack saying they plan to revisit the ordinance one there are state level regulations.
