Volusia County Council To Decide On Medical Marijuana Dispensary Ban

Volusia County, FL - At its upcoming meeting, the Volusia County Council will decide whether to treat medical marijuana dispensaries as pharmacies or create new zoning regulations for them. Staff will give a presentation on the State of Florida's medical marijuana dispensary provisions to the Council. The Florida legislature says that local governments can ban dispensaries or treat them the same as pharmacies. In Volusia County, pharmacies are allowed in the following land planning zones:

• General Office
• Hospital-Medical (B-1)
• Neighborhood Commercial (B-2)
• Osteen Commercial Village (OCV)
• Osteen Mixed Use Village Commercial (OMV)
• Permitted use in the Osteen Urban Residential (OUR)

The following maps break down where these zones are located throughout the County:

(Maps courtesy of Volusia County)

Staff says that dispensaries are "substantially similar" to pharmacies and therefore would be allowed in the previously mentioned zones, so long as they do not come closer than 500 feet of a public or private school. If the Council chooses not to ban dispensaries, they can use existing pharmacy ordinances to establish where dispensaries would be allowed or create "Medical Marijuana Dispensary" as a permitted use zoning district. The County may also increase the distance a dispensary or cultivation and processing facility can be from a public or private school. Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2017.