Wildwood Joins Towns Banning Cannabis Businesses, Public Consumption

WILDWOOD – Wildwood May 12 became the latest Jersey Shore town where lawmakers plan to ban marijuana businesses from operating and people from using cannabis on public property. 
Wildwood Board of Commissioners introduced ordinances that will do just that, as the deadline for municipalities to act in response to new state legislation legalizing recreational marijuana use is approaching. 
If municipalities don’t pass their weed laws by Aug. 21, they will be barred from doing so for five years. 
“We’re not necessarily taking a position that is going to be there forever,” Mayor Peter Byron said, adding the city can choose to change the law later and allow the businesses to operate if he and his two fellow commissioners receive information that persuades them it is a good idea. 
“Rather than have it forced on us, by doing this at this point, we can decipher the information as we get it,” Byron said, in response to public comment at the meeting. “That could take months.”
Byron said he plans to put a panel of community members together and solicit their input on the future of cannabis in Wildwood. The ordinance will return for a second reading and public comments later this month.