Here's what's holding back medical marijuana in one NKY city
That's what elected officials in Newport found out at a public meeting Monday night when they were presented with an updated city map with only four small slivers of land highlighted in green.
Assistant City Manager Brian Steffen said those are the only places that comply with state law and already-existing city zoning where medical marijuana dispensaries could possibly be located – and there aren't many commercial or industrial spaces available in those areas.
"It's not advisable to move forward with trying to create local legislation without the ability to create a zone and have a viable location for these businesses to locate. It just really isn't worth the effort," he said.
Here are the details holding medical marijuana back in the riverside city:
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat in a mostly red state, legalized medical marijuana in 2023 when he signed Senate Bill 47 into law. The program launched Jan. 1 with a slew of regulations.
Among them is a requirement that medical marijuana facilities – from growers to dispensaries – be located at least 1,000 feet away from schools and daycares.
With nearly two dozen schools or daycares in Newport's roughly 3.5 square miles, that severely limits where medical marijuana facilities could be located.
With the city's zoning, that leaves only four small areas viable. But those likely wouldn't be practical for medical marijuana uses either, Steffen said.
The areas either already have tenants in leases or are dangerously close to straddling that 1,000-foot invisible barrier.
Eagle-eyed residents might point to the map and wonder why Newport on the Levee couldn't be used to facilitate medical marijuana dispensaries.
Steffen said he spoke to management at Newport on the Levee, who told him the facility has its own rules prohibiting its renters from operating dispensaries on premises.
And the city can't force the company to rent space to any particular business.
The city is essentially shrugging its shoulders for now, but that doesn't mean elected officials are happy with the result.
"I've heard from a lot of people in our community that were in favor of bringing this forward," Councilman Aaron Sutherland said. "So the map being how it is, we can look at it and tell that it's just not viable at this time. But if it becomes viable, I would like to revisit it."
Sutherland, Councilman Mike Radwanski and Mayor Tom Guidugli Jr. are three of five commissioners who support bringing medical marijuana to the city.
Steffen said that when it comes to marijuana, states that legalize the plant for medical purposes often go on to approve it for recreational purposes within several years.
In nearby Ohio, for instance, medical marijuana was legalized in 2016. Last summer, recreational marijuana became legal to purchase.
"Rules change. The landscape changes on these things pretty frequently. So we'll be paying attention as time goes on," Steffen said.
The Office of Medical Cannabis website lists two medical practitioners in Campbell County who can issue medical marijuana cards. There are three in Boone County and 11 in Kenton County.
There are five general medical conditions that qualify someone for a medical marijuana card and there's a $25 annual application fee for the card.
For now, there aren't any open medical marijuana dispensaries in Northern Kentucky. So the best bet for getting a prescription filled is by purchasing it in nearby Ohio. Though, you definitely should check out the legal requirements to do so first.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Why medical marijuana just hit a roadblock in Newport
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
6 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Will County Board member Jacqueline Traynere charged with computer tampering
Will County Board member Jacqueline Traynere faces three counts of computer tampering, according to a complaint filed this week in Will County Circuit Court. Traynere, a Bolingbrook Democrat, allegedly accessed the email account of board member Judy Ogalla, a Monee Republican, in March 2024 without Ogalla's authorization, according to the charges. The misdemeanor charges filed by special prosecutor William Elward state Traynere forwarded emails from Ogalla's account to herself and others. Ogalla, who was the Will County Board chairman at the time, said that Traynere knowingly accessed her email and knew it was unethical. Ogalla questioned whether Traynere had opened her email more than once. She said she doesn't know what all Traynere saw. 'Was she in my email other times and I just didn't know?' Ogalla said. 'She shouldn't have done it.' An email exchanged between board member Steve Balich, a Homer Glen Republican, and Ogalla regarding the controversial 143rd Street road widening project had been forwarded to the county executive, who replied to the email, Balich said during a July 2024 news conference with other County Board Republicans. Reached Wednesday, Traynere said she was unaware of the charges. Traynere said she had been testing out a rumor that all County Board members were given the same password when they were issued new devices. At the time the incident occurred, Traynere said she contacted Ogalla to explain what happened and believed it amounted to nothing. She said it was a simple mistake to see if it were true that all board members had the same password and she was exposing a problem with the system. A summons was issued for Traynere to appear in court Sept. 9. Traynere said Wednesday she believes the charges are political. Traynere has been on the Will County Board since 2008 and is the past Democratic Leader. She chairs the Public Works and Transportation Committee. Her term expires in 2026. Already, Sheldon Watts and Tyler Giacalone have announced they are running for the two seats that are up for election next year to represent District 11. Earlier this year, Traynere was issued a traffic citation stemming from an accident with a minor on a bicycle. That case was dismissed May 15, according to her lawyer and Will County Court documents.
The Hill
6 minutes ago
- The Hill
Klobuchar weighs in on deepfake video of her talking about Sydney Sweeney
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) addressed the deepfake video that went viral last month of the senator's likeness offering a 'vulgar and absurd critique' of actress Sydney Sweeney's 'great jeans' ad campaign. In a New York Times op-ed, the moderate Democrat called on Congress to pass legislation to protect Americans from the harms of deepfakes, saying the issue requires urgent action amid the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. 'I learned that lesson in a visceral way over the last month when a fake video of me — opining on, of all things, the actress Sydney Sweeney's jeans — went viral,' she wrote in the op-ed. Klobuchar said after she co-led a hearing on data privacy last month, she noticed 'a clip of me from that hearing circulating widely on X, to the tune of more than a million views,' which the senator then clicked on to watch. 'That's when I heard my voice — but certainly not me — spewing a vulgar and absurd critique of an ad campaign for jeans featuring Sydney Sweeney,' she said, referring to the controversial American Eagle advertisement that touted the actress's 'great jeans.' Klobuchar explained the AI deepfake featured her using derogatory phrases and 'lamenting that Democrats were 'too fat to wear jeans or too ugly to go outside.'' 'Though I could immediately tell that someone used footage from the hearing to make a deepfake, there was no getting around the fact that it looked and sounded very real,' she said. Klobuchar said when the clip spread to other platforms, TikTok took it down, and Meta labeled the video as artificial intelligence. But she said the social platform X 'refused to take it down or label it.' 'X's response was that I should try to get a 'Community Note' to say it was a fake, something the company would not help add,' she added. The Hill has reached out to X for comment. Klobuchar noted that her experience 'does not in any way represent the gravest threat posed by deepfakes' and pointed to other recent examples, including when someone used AI to pretend to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio and contacted various high-level government officials. President Trump in May signed into law a bill that Klobuchar pushed for, cracking down on so-called deepfake revenge porn — or sexually explicit AI images and videos that are posted without the victim's consent. Klobuchar is calling now for Congress to pass her bipartisan 'No Fakes Act,' which 'would give people the right to demand that social media companies remove deepfakes of their voice and likeness, while making exceptions for speech protected by the First Amendment,' she said. 'In the United States, and within the bounds of our Constitution, we must put in place common-sense safeguards for artificial intelligence. They must at least include labeling requirements for content that is substantially generated by A.I.,' she wrote in the op-ed. She warned that the country is 'at just the tip of the iceberg,' noting, 'The internet has an endless appetite for flashy, controversial content that stokes anger. The people who create these videos aren't going to stop at Sydney Sweeney's jeans.' 'We can love the technology and we can use the technology, but we can't cede all the power over our own images and our privacy,' she wrote. 'It is time for members of Congress to stand up for their constituents, stop currying favor with the tech companies and set the record straight. In a democracy, we do that by enacting laws. And it is long past time to pass one.'
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
County Republicans moving forward after Stefanik, Manning clash
PLATTSBURGH — Clinton County Republican Committee Chairwoman Jerika Manning said she is focusing on moving forward after the recent public spat with Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. 'I think that we've always been looking for us to move forward,' Manning said Monday. 'For the Clinton County Republican Committee to continue doing its job, continue finding good candidates, putting up good candidates for government, and working together, and we are ready to do that.' Last week, Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, called on Manning — one of three county Republican chairs who will decide the party's candidate in the upcoming 115th assembly district special election — to resign from her position as GOP chair, accusing her of trying 'to unilaterally disqualify candidates, float placeholders, float herself, and divide the committee.' Manning, who denied those accusations and said she would 'not be intimidated' and 'not abandon my responsibility to our voters' by resigning, saw Stefanik in-person for the first time Monday since the back and forth took place. Stefanik and Manning were both in attendance and stood next to each other during the Monday's renaming of the Clinton County Government Center in honor of late long-time Clinton County Clerk John Zurlo, who died in December 2024. Asked after the ceremony if she had talked to Stefanik, Manning said she didn't and had no plans to meet with her that day either. She said it wasn't 'awkward.' 'This is Clinton County. I've lived here my whole life. I was surrounded by people who love John, myself included,' Manning said. 'And I think that was the moral of the story today.' Stefanik told the media Monday as well that she was focused on helping flip the assembly seat from Democrat to Republican when asked about what happened with the committee and its leadership. 'I think voters are going to make their decision as they always do,' she said. 'We're going to focus on flipping that assembly seat and supporting Republicans up and down the ballot. I have 15 counties at one point or another who have been in my district, and we've worked through various challenges, and that'll be the case in this one as well.' Billy Jones has held the lone Democratic state seat in the North Country since 2017. Jones announced earlier this month he would be resigning as assemblyman effective Aug. 31. The governor has 90 days from then to call a special election for the seat. Stefanik had endorsed village of Malone Mayor and Franklin County Legislator Andrea Dumas as the Republican's candidate a little over a week after Jones's resignation. In a statement last week, Clinton County Republican Committee Vice-Chair Jeff Luck said Stefanik's endorsement was done 'without warning' and without seeing if any other candidates were being considered by the committee first. 'Andrea Dumas is a very strong candidate, but they removed from the county committee members any other potential choices that were lined up in the process,' Luck wrote. 'Worse, they began an immediate bullying campaign for us to concede the process and remove the freedom of Clinton County Republicans to express their voices. We declined.' Stefanik said Monday she 'was proud to endorse Andrea Dumas, along with State Sen. (Dan) Stec.' 'For a special election where you have a short period of time — Remember, people can weigh in on endorsements or not — I just wanted to make it known that that's why I strongly supported it and she has support from the Conservative Party as well,' she said. Her reasoning for the early endorsement, she said, was because Dumas wasn't being given the chance to present herself as a candidate to the committee. 'It's important to make sure all candidates have the opportunity to present. That was not the way the process was being run. We believe that's the best opportunity for them to hear from each of the candidates, or, interested people who want to pursue this,' Stefanik said. 'I've spoken with each of the candidates directly, and they were very frustrated with not having a fair and open process and now they do have a fair and open process, which is important … for the voters of Clinton County.' Manning said the fair vetting process of candidates that Stefanik claimed was not happening was always happening. 'From day one that was going to happen, I maintained that was going to happen, there's no question in my mind, or in the mind of the Clinton County Republican committee,' she said. 'I'm glad that everybody agrees and is on the same page now, and we'll just continue doing what we were doing.' As previously reported by the Press-Republican, Stefanik was not given a warm welcome in her visit to Plattsburgh on Monday. Dozens of protestors, holding signs denouncing her and shouting insults and boos, greeted her at the ceremony for Zurlo. She was booed during her speech to the Zurlo family then left the podium only to return minutes later and finish her speech despite the shouts raining down. She said she didn't want the protestors to stop her. 'I thought the radicals would calm down out of respect for the Zurlo family,' Stefanik said. 'Obviously, they did not do that, but I was not going to let them drown out me talking about how important it is to commemorate John Zurlo's legacy. So they chose not to calm down, but I wanted to make sure the Zurlo family heard from me.'
