City Council To Discuss Proposed Ban On Commercial Sales of Recreational Marijuana

By Jayson Jacoby

jjacoby@bakercityherald.com

Baker City Police Chief Wyn Lohner recommends the City Council ban commercial marijuana businesses, even though passing such an ordinance could put the city at risk of a lawsuit.

Councilors will consider Lohner’s proposal when they meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 1655 First St.

“The choice we need to make is whether or not that potential risk of a lawsuit is greater than the overall safety risk that allowing commercial marijuana operations in our city clearly has,” Lohner wrote in a report to the City Council.

The situation regarding the city’s ability to restrict marijuana stores has become more complicated since last spring, when the Baker City Council joined officials in many other Oregon cities in banning medical marijuana dispensaries.

All of those bans expire May 1, 2015.

In November, Oregon voters approved Ballot Measure 91, which legalizes recreational use of marijuana starting July 1, 2015.

That means stores could eventually open that sell marijuana to any adult, not only to those who have a medical marijuana card.

There are 257 Baker County residents who have a medical marijuana card, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

In his report to the City Council, Lohner notes that the Oregon Legislature will allow voters in each city to ban commercial sales of recreational marijuana, by way of a local ballot measure.

However, voters can’t do so until the next statewide general election, in November 2016. Yet as Lohner notes in his report, the state is slated to start issuing licenses to commercial pot stores in January 2016.

“That will allow commercial operations to gain a foothold,” Lohner wrote in his report to councilors. “If Baker City adopts a prohibition ordinance now, it will provide an avenue to prevent commercial operations while the legislature sorts out their next move and while the courts sort out the pending litigation.”

Beyond the timelines, there is a dispute among attorneys about whether city councils, before a citywide vote, can themselves approve ordinances banning recreational marijuana sales, even though the Legislature has not given cities that authority.

See more in Monday’s issue of the Baker City Herald.