The Milford City Council has passed an ordinance banning recreational marijuana dispensaries from operating in the city for 180 days.
The council approved the ordinance imposing a 180-day moratorium on adult-use cannabis dispensaries and prohibiting marijuana cultivation and processors with the city during its meeting on July 16.
When Issue 2 went into effect on Dec. 7, 2023, the new revised code included a section that allows a city to adopt an ordinance to limit or ban altogether “cultivators, processors, and adult-use dispensaries and/or to regulate their location.
Language written in the approved ordinance says that Milford city staff would like more time to review and to make recommendations on zoning, prohibition, and/or limitation on cannabis operations and operators so that any necessary regulations can conform to the City’s goals and help ensure, the public health, peace, safety, and welfare.
It also states that a moratorium of 180 days on the authorization or establishment of any adult-use cannabis business as defined the Ohio Revised Code will allow city staff to accomplish its goals.
During the 180-day moratorium, effective July 16, the city will not take any to authorize or to establish any adult-use cannabis business or operation within the city including but not limited to, adult-use cannabis processors, cultivators, or dispensaries.
Uplift Cannabis Dispensary, which opened in Milford in April 2023 for medical marijuana sales and also has a location in Mt. Orab, received approval from the State on its license application for recreational marijuana sales to adults 21 and older.
Requests for comment to the City of Milford and Uplift Cannabis Dispensary were not received by the time of publication.