HUBBARD — Voters will have the chance to decide on the fate of recreational marijuana sales within city limits in this year’s election.

City council originally passed legislation banning its sale in a 4-2 vote this July, despite statewide legalization of adult-use cannabis. One council member abstained from the vote because he had family who worked at the city’s medical marijuana dispensary, A Cut Above.

However, A Cut Above collected 194 signatures, nearly twice the required 100 to get the issue on next month’s ballot as a referendum.

The election is Nov. 5. Early voting started Oct. 8.

ACA DISPENSARY

For ACA Dispensary, the city’s lone medicinal marijuana facility, November’s election is a matter of life or death.

Dustin Crites, the dispensary’s general manager, said their company was among the first businesses to be approved for a dual use license under the name B Cubed Operations Ohio LLC when the state began accepting applications June 7.

When they applied for the license, Crites said everyone in town had no issues and they were “forthcoming and open” about the process with Mayor Ben Kyle and city council, but things changed as soon as articles came out noting them as one of four Trumbull and Mahoning County businesses to be awarded the license as of June 25.

“The next day, city council called an emergency meeting. They voted to put a ban on it, saying it was a ‘state of emergency in the town,’ that there were going to be issues and problems, and they didn’t want any riffraff, shenanigans or problems coming from adult-use facilities,” Crites said.

Crites said they only had five days to get the minimum 100 verified signatures of registered age 21 and older Hubbard voters to get it on next month’s ballot, which he considered a “very short timeframe” to get that number.

Crites spoke in front of residents and council members at a Sept. 16 meeting, noting the potential benefits the city could reap by allowing it and asking them to consider overturning the ban ahead of the election.

Crites said an emergency meeting was held the following week and the ban was kept in play through a 4-3 vote.

Crites said the dispensary initially came to the city under the medicinal license because it was the only one available when they first opened, but their facility was designed with intentions of a large-scale operation.

“I mean, we have 12 point-of-sale stations, a drive-thru, 36 parking spots out front,” Crites said. “It’s an 8,200 square foot facility, there’s over 6,000 square feet on the showroom or sales floor, so we had every thought and intention.”

Crites said things as they are now are “definitely tough” and he’s been in a buying freeze, and they’ve been doing their best to “keep the lights on” until the vote, which has added to the sense of urgency for them.

OPPOSITION

Robin Zambrini, 2nd Ward councilwoman, admitted she had no problems with the medicinal licensing in the city, saying that if it can help people with cancer feel better or improve their quality of life, she gets it. But she felt concern for the children.

“I go to work every day up the hill past there (the dispensary) and I need to stop numerous times for school buses — kids getting on, kids getting off,” Zambrini said. “I’m sitting there and I’m like, this is not a good place for recreational (marijuana).”

Zambrini added that she wished the city council had the chance to point out that it wasn’t a good location for the facility and ask them to locate north or west of town.

Zambrini said she considered the potential $191,940 annual revenue to the city that Crites mentioned in his Sept. 16 presentation to be speculation.

Zambrini pointed out that when the original state issue allowing recreational marijuana, the 2023 Marijuana Legalization Initiative, was voted on, there was only a 142-vote difference supporting it in Hubbard.

“That tells me that almost the same amount of people against it were for it. It was not a slam dunk,” she said.

Zambrini questioned why the state would give them a way out of having recreational marijuana in their city, if having the ban in place was wrong.

“If this were not right, then why did the Ohio legislature agree that this is the route we could take via the Ohio Revised Code?”, Zambrini said. “This is specifically in there that if there’s a medical dispensary, a municipality has a right to say no recreational marijuana. The dispensary then has the right to put it to a citizen’s referendum.”

“We followed it legally every step of the way. So why did the state leave that option possible, if it was so wrong?” she added.

SUPPORT

For Councilman Michael Mogg, 3rd Ward, who was one of the two council people who voted against the ban, the potential extra yearly revenue to the city and health benefits led to his support of having it in the city.

“The benefits of cannabis, as opposed to the chemicals people put in their body every year for depression, anxiety, things like that,” Mogg said. “(If) people would just educate themselves and read up on the health benefits of cannabis and what it can do for you, I think it would change a lot of people. But the primary reason was the money.”

Mogg clarified that while he and Cathy Cummings, 4th-Ward, voted in favor, he said Council-at-Large Michael Kerr also supported it, and his son quitting allowed him to vote at the special meeting, making the vote 4-3.

Mogg said he understood Zambrini’s concerns about the bus stop across from the dispensary, but saw it to be no different than the bars.

“I understand what she’s saying there, but she’s got to understand there’s a bus stop next to three of the bars here in town. There’s a bus stop by the gun shop,” Mogg said.

“Robin and I are friends. Everybody on there voted their own way; it’s democracy, it’s your choice. But they gotta get that stereotype of what marijuana is out of their system. They’ve got to start educating themselves, and I wish they would do that,” he added.