Inverness to consider banning future marijuana dispensaries

By John Labriola - Inverness may soon follow Citrus County in banning future medical marijuana clinics.

After hearing from nearly a dozen residents who urged city leaders to take action following the Citrus County Commission's adoption last week of an ordinance to prevent additional marijuana facilities from opening in unincorporated Citrus County, members of the Inverness City Council on Tuesday all agreed to bring back their own ordinance to stop dispensaries from coming to the city.

"Let's just limit the dispensaries, any more coming into our town," said Council President Gene Davis. 

Last year, the Crystal River City Council voted to ban future marijuana clinics there. 

There are a total of eight medical marijuana facilities in Citrus County. Four are located in the city of Crystal River and two in the city of Inverness. Unincorporated Inverness has one, and the other is in Homosassa.

Renea Teaster, director of the Anti-Drug Coalition of Citrus County, who visits schools to stress the dangers of substance abuse, was among the first to address the council, having spoken at the County Commission meeting the week before. She said Inverness must protect its "Small Town Done Right" slogan by banning future dispensaries, noting that the large number of high-visibility marijuana clinics in the area is increasing drug use and making it difficult to convince students to avoid the drug.

"To help them understand the dangers of a psychoactive substance that is medically legal is very hard because the adolescent brain is not fully developed until the age of 25, so they're making decisions based on what they see in the community and accepted by society," Teaster said. "From a prevention standpoint, having too many dispensaries in a small-town atmosphere is giving quite a different feel, not one that's prevention-friendly. It really takes a village, in this case a city, to keep prevention at the forefront, and limiting dispensaries. The more it becomes available in a community, the problems can grow."

Carmelita Seda Carothers of Hillcrest Estates said her 38-year-old daughter recently wound up in a hospital psych ward because of the effects of marijuana. 

"I never imagined that she would end up in a hospital in a psych ward. It had to do with the marijuana because of the high levels. It's not properly regulated. People don't realize that when it's harvested, there's metal chemicals that get in there, there's all kinds of pesticides that get in there," she said. 

Michael Laurain of East Cove, who had a medical marijuana card when he lived in Michigan, said he's also in favor of limiting marijuana facilities because of the "terrible effect" he's seen from the drug. He worries the industry may become harder to control later on if the effort to get recreational marijuana on the state ballot is successful.

"Something's got to get done ahead of time because it's a lot easier now than it's going to be later," he said.

In 2017, the Inverness City Council banned dispensaries within the city but rescinded the ordinance two years later after visiting a Trulieve marijuana clinic outside the county and being "impressed by the professionalism and security at the dispensary," according to a local newspaper report. A Trulieve marijuana treatment center now occupies a high-visibilty location in the Publix plaza on Highway 44 near the intersection with Florida Avenue. The other marijuana clinic within Inverness city limits is a Green Dragon on Florida Avenue next to Planet Fitness.

Jeff Burke, a pastor at Inverness' Solid Rock Church, said traffic deaths have doubled in Colorado since marijuana was legalized there due to intoxication from the drug, and it's time for the city to limit the industry.  

Councilman Tom Craig, who worked with Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) for 16 years, said although driving while under the influence of marijuana is illegal, there's no test to determine if a motorist is intoxicated from marijuana.

"It's kind of hard to enforce if there's no test," he said.

Mayor Bob Plaisted said his granddaughter got kicked out of high school for getting caught with marijuana from a dispensary and now works in the marijuana industry, but has no high school diploma despite being "brilliant." He said he's "totally in favor" of stopping the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries in the city. 

"I think we need to really consider limiting the amount we've got here, follow the county and Crystal River's leads," he said.