Oviedo will become the first Seminole County city to allow medical marijuana dispensaries. City leaders decided to let a moratorium that blocked dispensaries from applying for business permits in the city expire.
- Oviedo to allow medical marijuana dispensaries
- The city will let a moratorium expire
- Dispensaries can apply for business licenses in zoned areas
Like other cities in Seminole County and across Central Florida, Oviedo blocked any dispensaries from applying for business permits. But the moratorium was set to expire.
“The city council in Oviedo really struggled with this decision,” said Mayor Dominic Persampierre. “Seventy-three percent of the voters in Oviedo voted for medical marijuana, and over 70% throughout the state, so this is obviously something the folks want.”
The dispensaries will now be allowed to apply for business licenses in areas zoned for commercial development, the same areas where regular pharmacies are already doing business in Oviedo.
“If it becomes anything more like out in Colorado and in other states, then we may have to reconsider re-evaluating, but at this time it’s the right thing to do,” said Persampierre.
Justin Muller says he has a digestive disorder similar to Crohn’s Disease, and recently spent several days in the hospital. He says smoking pot is the only thing that’s relieved his debilitating symptoms.
“It helped with nausea because I would vomit everything up, and it helped everything,” said Muller. “And it wasn’t just about getting high, it legitimately helped.”
Muller is now back to waiting tables at an Oviedo restaurant that’s in a shopping center that could someday see a medical marijuana dispensary open up.
He says he’s hoping to get a prescription for medical marijuana, and says it would be convenient if a dispensary opened up in the same shopping plaza where he works.
“It’s probably going to be a big deal because people make it a big deal,” said Muller. “I think eventually it will get ironed out with regulations and people will learn how to do security there. And it will lose its luster too.”
Mayor Persampierre says no dispensaries have applied for business licenses yet.
When Florida lawmakers passed medical marijuana, they left it up to local cities and counties to decide whether to ban the dispensaries.