West Palm Beach Officials Move to Block New Marijuana Dispensaries
By Jeff Ostrowski June 29, 2023 4:57 pm
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Four years after the first medical marijuana dispensary opened in West Palm Beach, city officials say cannabis businesses are growing out of control. Commissioners voted 4 to 1 this week to halt approvals of new dispensaries in the city of 117,000.
“We already have nine of them in the city,” City Commissioner Joseph Peduzzi said during a public meeting. “I don’t want to see us as a city of West Palm Beach becoming the place where everyone comes to buy their marijuana.”
West Palm Beach’s first medical marijuana dispensary opened in June 2019, when the company formerly known as MedMen Enterprises debuted at 539 Clematis Street. (That location now operates as Sunburn.)
Since then, other cannabis dispensaries have opened within city limits, including Ayr Cannabis Dispensary at 1540 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, Green Dragon at 1695 Forum Place, Rise Dispensaries at 430 Clematis Street and Surterra Wellness at 2500 South Dixie Highway. Under the measure, which goes to a second reading next month, the city’s existing dispensaries would continue to operate but no future outlets would be allowed.
The proliferation of dispensaries in West Palm Beach reflects a flourishing industry. As of last week, 828,560 Floridians were on the state’s medical marijuana registry, according to the Florida Department of Health’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use.
And weed is politically popular. In the state’s 2016 ballot question on legalizing medical marijuana, 71 percent of Floridians voted yes. In West Palm Beach, 77 percent of voters approved the referendum, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
Nevertheless, West Palm Beach commissioners said they worry about too many pot shops and their effect on the city’s image. “I don’t think that that vote meant we need to have medical marijuana on every corner,” said Commissioner Christy Fox.
City officials began considering a crackdown on cannabis last year, after the Downtown Development Authority asked for a six-month moratorium on any additional cannabis businesses downtown. In the measure the commission approved this week, the ban is not just downtown but citywide.
Commissioner Cathleen Ward cast the lone dissenting vote, calling the move “hasty.”
“We heard from residents in one area,” Ward said, referring to downtown. “We didn’t hear from anybody else. Moving automatically to a total, citywide ban without doing the other types of talking to other residents like we normally do and hearing from them, I think it’s reckless.”
Supporters of the ban noted that medical marijuana dispensaries haven’t created crime or blight. Their concern focuses on perception — and the possibility that Florida voters could approve recreational marijuana as early as next year.
After the 2016 referendum passed, municipalities such as Delray Beach, Palm Beach and Jupiter banned medical marijuana dispensaries. Those moves narrowed the cannabis companies’ options to areas that allow them, including West Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach and unincorporated Palm Beach County.
As of June 23, 578 state-regulated dispensaries operated throughout Florida.
Jeff Ostrowski can be reached at jostrowski@commercialobserver.com.
