Stakeholders’ warnings to Council fall on deaf ears: “Upstanding citizens were ignored”

MANSFIELD — Surrounded by jurisdictions banning commercial marijuana, City Council just lit a match during June Eighteenth’s vote, tossing it at dozens of community-partners. On an evening of “Hear no evil and see no evil,” Mansfield City Council voted against a six month moratorium to prohibit commercial marijuana development. This, despite a chorus of stakeholders going on the record supporting a local ban.

The word “undermine” seemed to be the common theme on Tuesday evening. In a letter to City Council, CACY Executive Director Tracee Anderson wrote, “Allowing more accessibility of cannabis in our community will undermine the goal for a more educated Richland County workforce, and may lead to increased ‘brain drain’ or movement of skilled workforce to other areas,” she warned. Similarly, Lead Pastor David Parsons, representing a group of eighty-four diverse local faith leaders, told Council “Our community efforts will be undermined if commercial cannabis is permitted inside city limits.”

But Council had already made up its mind. Councilman Aurelio Diaz (I, 5th Ward) responded by saying, “I feel marijuana is the least of our problems…my vote (opposing the moratorium) is not undermining anybody’s ministry.” Ironically, during the public hearing it was Diaz who shared how he had a family member two years ago die from drug use. “I do not have a problem with (recreational marijuana use), but she overdosed with three other friends on marijuana laced with fentanyl.” He went on to say, “In the past, our city has let us down by getting rid of recreational programs for the youth. This new Administration looks to change that.”

Last month The Cannabist Co. met with Mansfield city officials promising to bring twenty jobs and $250 thousand in annual tax revenue to the city. Recently the debt-strickened company announced it was leaving one of the nation’s biggest marijuana markets to focus on Ohio. The Cannabist Company Holdings Inc. lost $34 million in the first quarter of 2024 and $174.3 million last year. Some city leaders were not impressed by the company’s promises.

Alongside Council Members Antoinette Daley (D-4th Ward), and Deborah Mount (R-6th Ward), Councilman Reverend El Akuchie (R-3rd Ward) stood his ground in support for the overlooked moratorium. “In my thirty years of experience in drug and alcohol counseling, I did funerals for students using marijuana who died from drug abuse….There is nothing anybody can tell me that will change my mind. I am not willing to sell the soul of my children in this city to the highest bidder so that these dispensaries can make money. Telling us that we will make millions of dollars-excuse me? You cannot fool me.”

Despite the State Republican Party’s position opposing recreational marijuana last election, and a Republican majority on Council, several Republicans still voted to open the floodgates to commercial cannabis. In the vote, At-Large Councilman David Falquette (R) voted in favor of weed, betraying faith leaders who endorsed his candidacy in 2019. Falquette previously stated in a Frontlines Ohio survey that he opposed recreational marijuana use….that is until after he gets his endorsements. Falquette’s term is set to expire December 2027.

One law enforcement veteran challenged councilmembers willing to appease the cannabis cartels. “Are you prepared to exchange lives for revenue?” Former Safety Service Director and DARE Officer Lori Cope asked Council, “During my career, I spoke to students in all twelve elementary schools in the city, discussing the dangers of drugs like marijuana. The undisputed fact is marijuana is a gateway drug regardless of its legal status. How can you tell your own children ‘marijuana is not permitted in your home’ when you have just allowed it in the community you live in?”

During the contentious council meeting, two different worldviews clashed. One medical professional cited marijuana as a contributing factor to schizophrenia. And the other, an embattled city official, who thinks marijuana actually treats schizophrenia.

Councilmember Stephanie Zader (R-At large) who last Fall was arrested for an OVI, admitted during council deliberations that she had the longest drug history out of anybody in the room. “I grew up in a drug house. With crack cocaine as the drug of her choice, my mother remains a drug addict. I have been assaulted many times by my mom but I never was attacked by her when she was high on marijuana,” Zader alleged. “Marijuana helps my mom with her schizophrenia.” (See Editor’s Note) The terms for Stephanie Zader and fellow Councilmember Laura Burns, (1st Ward) who also voted in favor of the mind-altering drug, both expire December 2025.

Citizens testifying in favor of the commercial moratorium outnumbered opponents by a 2 to 1 margin. Of the sixteen who supported, Dr. Joseph Bocka, MD cited a recent Danish study. “The study concluded between twenty-five to thirty percent of schizophrenia in males could be prevented if marijuana was not allowed under age seventeen,” he said. Nurse Amanda Nichols, RN, added that when weed dispensaries come in, emergency rooms are burdened with skyrocketing overdoses. “In one community, I saw overdoses went from two hundred cases to nearly three thousand in one year,” she said. “Many of these overdoses involve children at very young ages consuming THC edibles resembling candies when negligent adults leave them laying around.”

Speaking of mishaps, Mansfield resident, Jack Ink, shared how as a General Motors employee, he was the victim of an accident involving a co-worker high on marijuana. “I was almost killed by a marijuana user,” Ink said. “As an electrician, I was in the air on a diesel man-lift and the lady involved was refueling the diesel-man lift with gasoline. She could not see straight because they found out she was high on marijuana. When the engine exploded, I was throwed against pipes and almost crushed to death,” he recalled.

The youngest council member also went on record opposing commercial marijuana. “I support the moratorium,” said Deborah Mount. “As a first-responder and EMT, I have been on numerous calls involving marijuana, specifically THC gummies. The costs of these accidents is very expensive. In one case I saw two cars totaled and four people life-flighted to Grant Hospital. With the reality of increased traffic accidents, the imagined revenue does not persuade me. I have seen too much.”

After the short-sighted vote, one pastor has also seen too much. “It is unethical to allow the endangerment of children,” said Lead Pastor LaMont Lindsay. “Each Council member will be accountable to both GOD and their city. This is not true leadership when Council’s rationale for allowing marijuana is that ‘everybody else is doing it.'” The faith leader went on to say, “Upstanding citizens were ignored. At some point their needs to be adults in the room making the important decisions. Apparently City Council is prioritizing money over the sanctity of the family; and now we have a divided city.”

Editor ‘s Note: Scitzophhrenia is presently NOT a qualifying condition for prescription under Ohio Marijuana Law.

Bottom Line:

The Bible says in Proverbs Twenty-nine, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people mourn.”