Citrus County bans more marijuana clinics in unincorporated county

By John Labriola - The Citrus County Commission last week unanimously approved an ordinance to prohibit any future marijuana dispensaries from opening in unincorporated Citrus County. 

Commissioner Jeff Kinnard, who sponsored the ordinance, said Citrus County's concentration of dispensaries is now higher than Volusia County's.

He showed his colleagues a photo he took on a recent trip to Volusia which illustrates the kind of businesses that gravitate to areas with a proliferation of marijuana dispensaries. The photo showed a Stoner’s Pizza Joint right next to a Curaleaf cannabis dispensary on Daytona Beach's main street, “which I’m sure makes the Volusia County Board of County Commissioners just beam with pride about what's happening on their main thoroughfare,” he said.

A total of eight marijuana clinics currently exist in Citrus County, two of them in unincorporated Citrus County. Under the ordinance, they can continue operating but won't be able to expand or relocate. The other six are within the city boundaries of Crystal River and Inverness. Crystal River now prohibits the establishment of any more medical marijuana clinics in the city, but Inverness does not.

Renea Teaster, executive director of the Anti-Drug Coalition of Citrus County, expressed her organization's support for the ban.

She said that while she has compassion for those who need cannabis for various medical conditions including cancer, PTSD and epilepsy, those individuals in the county already have enough access to medical marijuana clinics, but marijuana use is now growing among teens.

"As availability of a product in an area increases, the perception of harm goes down. This means students, who are the most vulnerable of our population, do not recognize the danger. From gummies to THC vapes, these things are popping up in our community among our students," she said, adding that "marijuana is to mental illness what tobacco was to cancer." 

"What do we want our community to look like and what message are we sending to youth by having so many dispensaries? Cannabis is not a prescribed pharmaceutical, can have high potency and it is not even regulated by the FDA." she said.

Patty Grimsley of Crystal River agreed.

"I've had tons of friends visit me. The first thing they say to me is, 'Oh my gosh, I've never seen so many drug places,'" she said. "I'm all for whoever needs to use it, but there's enough in the county to service those people, and why do they have to be right there in the face of all the kids?"

Medical marijuana was legalized in Florida in a 2016 voter-approved constitutional amendment. Last year, voters defeated a proposed amendment to legalize recreational marijuana, with Gov. Ron DeSantis leading the opposition, but the amendment's sponsors are trying again.

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