Naperville Council Rethinks Recreational Marijuana Sales

NAPERVILLE, IL — After drafting up an ordinance to opt out of recreational cannabis sales, the Naperville City Council has chosen to take a look at how recreational marijuana sales would play out in the city. The shift comes after council members stayed until well after 1 a.m. debating the issue.

Tuesday was the first reading of the ordinance that would amend the municipal code to prohibit recreational cannabis businesses in the city.

One business hoping that Naperville gets on board with recreational pot is Green Thumb Industries (GTI). The Chicago-based cannabis distributor operates Naperville's medical marijuana dispensary, 3C Compassionate Care Center.

Dina Rollman, senior vice president of Green Thumb urged the council to draft an "opt in" ordinance.

"It would give Naperville a much larger degree of control of what this is going to look like fo the community," Rollman said.

Mark Rice, a 32-year Naperville resident, spoke out against an ordinance that would prohibit recreational marijuana businesses.

"Why opt in?" Rice said. "Only a few cannabis dispensaries will be located within the city of Naperville, unlike the number of bars, restaurants, grocery stores, wine shops, [stores] that sell beer, wine, and liquor, all of which have more harmful effects than marijuana."

"If this product is banned, the tax revenue will go to other communities" when residents go to other municipalities to purchase marijuana for recreational use.

Other residents spoke to express concerns about the adult use recreational marijuana might pose for children. One woman said it would be problematic to normalize recreational cannabis dispensaries and make them "look inviting" to children who will anticipate being old enough to go into them "like bars."

Resident Jean Page argued that marijuana is not a gateway drug ."Did cannabis lead [hard drug users] to try those drugs? No. More than likely trauma did. Or abuse. Those are the real gateway drugs," Page said.

City Council Member Kevin Coyne cautioned "If we opt in now, it's going to be extremely hard to undo it," adding that the city can always decide to opt in later "after we see what's going on in other communities."

Other council members supported the idea of opting out until the city can get more information and see the impact of opting in on other municipalities. More discussion of how opting in would work is expected at the next village meeting.