OC Moves to Ban Pot Sales

OCEAN CITY – With New Jersey set to join a growing number of states that have legalized marijuana sales, Ocean City, in turn, moved to join a growing number of towns saying “Not in our community.”
City Council unanimously introduced a zoning ordinance Jan. 10, prohibiting businesses that cultivate, grow, test or sell marijuana in any zone in the city. The ordinance is set for a public hearing and final vote at the Feb. 14 City Council meeting at 7 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall, 861 Asbury Ave., after a review by the Planning Board.
“The zoning ordinance will continue what is in effect the current ban on these activities in Ocean City,” City Attorney Dorothy McCrosson told City Council. After the meeting, she said the ordinance would apply to facilities dealing with medical marijuana as well as marijuana sold to the public should the Legislature pass and Gov. Murphy sign a legalization bill.
Some council members welcomed the ordinance.
“Our founding fathers here were smart enough to set Ocean City aside as a place that was a family town. I think we owe it to our kids to do the same. I’m absolutely in support of this,” said Councilman Michael DeVlieger. 
Councilman Keith Hartzell said everything he heard from the public has been in support of a ban, and Councilman Robert Barr said, “I’ve made my stance clear in the past. I’m 100 percent in support of this.”
It’s been almost a year since DeVlieger raised the issue at a January 2018, council meeting, citing a letter from the substance abuse treatment and prevention agency, Cape Assist. At the time, Mayor Jay Gillian said he had already asked McCrosson to look at the city’s options.
According to McCrosson, the state Senate bill that has cleared committee gives municipalities the ability to ban dispensaries and other licensed operations in their border. But if it becomes law, the city would not be able to prevent individuals in town from possessing the drug or using it in their homes.
New Jersey already allows those with a doctor’s recommendation to use marijuana in the treatment of several diseases, with six licensed dispensaries in the state. Murphy has expanded the diseases for which the drug can be used and is set to expand the number of facilities, with six additional dispensaries approved last fall.
Some on council have raised concerns about people smoking pot on the boardwalk if legalization moves forward. The bill under consideration bans the public use of the drug, and a different state law, which takes effect this month, bans smoking on beaches throughout the state, including cigarettes and marijuana.
One resident, Marie Hayes, welcomed the ordinance in the public comment portion of the meeting. Earlier, another resident spoke strongly against the action.
Steven Fenichel invoked Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi in his comments at the start of the meeting, protesting council to table the ordinance. He said he was honored by the way Ocean City observed Martin Luther King Day each year.
“It is, however, time to honor the work and legacy of Dr. King by an honest analysis of a major problem in America – the mass incarceration of more Americans per capita, than any nation in the world,” he said. Much of that stems from the criminalization of marijuana and the war on drugs, he said, “or more accurately, the war on African Americans and Hispanics. These groups are the greatest casualties of the drug war.”
Fenichel, a dermatologist who ran for Congress as an independent last year, suggested if Ocean City were to be consistent, cigarettes and caffeinated beverages should be next, adding that cell phones were also addictive, as is television.
“This proposed pot ordinance is forgetting a much bigger sin that should be outlawed in our community. The sin of greed,” he said.
To contact Bill Barlow, email bbarlow@cmcherald.com.