RAPID CITY, S.D. – The Sturgis City Council is working on an ordinance that will temporarily govern medical marijuana until the state can adopt rules on legalization.
Sturgis City Manager Daniel Ainslie says like other communities, they are having many concerns.
“Number one, whether or not the city should authorize a dispensary, because you don’t have to. But, if you do not, then people are authorized to grow their own plants and everything we have heard is that becomes a more dangerous thing in the community when people start growing their own plants and you end up having a lot of break-ins.”
He says to avoid that would be to authorize dispensaries.
“One you do that, whether it be government owned, and if it’s not government owned, what sort of zoning limitations should be held on that. And also, what do you do about the type of products being sold.”
Ainslie says they have been studying how other states handle their medical marijunana – such as Colorado.
The council could see first reading of some sort of medical marijuana ordinance at their first June meeting.
Meanwhile,
The Rapid City Council will discuss medical marijuana at their scheduled working session today (Wednesday).
The city doesn’t want to monitor the consumption of marijuana but discuss where manufactures of the product will be placed.
Despite medical marijuana becoming legal July 1st, the state has not yet adopted any rules on the legalization.
City attorney Joel Landeen says a lot of the communities are either moving forward not knowing what the state rules are or doing something similar to what they’re doing – setting something up initially to at least get something in the books.
Landeen hopes to receive guidance from the state within the next few months.
