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MANSFIELD — After City Council greenlighted marijuana dispensaries, cannabis cartels are lining up to locate in the most prohibited region of the state. Brian Patrick Hannessey of Backroad Wellness recently announced the purchase of property at 1099 West Fourth Street. Hannessey is listed as Founder and Vice President of the company. Hannessey is also a convicted felon.
According to its website, the family-run Zanesville company “saw a need for a new approach to marijuana dispensaries after seeing the benefits of cannabis in their own family.” The weed company’s products tell another story.
Products from Backroad Wellness include high THC potency products inaptly named, “High-Divorce Rate Resin” with 68% THC, Durban Poison Live Resin with 72% THC and “Problem-Child Solventless Ice Hash” with 63% THC. The Backroad Wellness Founder is adamant about selling these products in Mansfield perhaps because he has experience with them first-hand.
Brian Hennessey was sentenced to three years in Noble Correctional Institute after being charged in 2016 with felony abduction charges. According to police reports, Hennessey beat his wife, held her hostage, and fled the scene. The Backroad Wellness founder, who has several children, is known to have a history of substance abuse problems, including with marijuana. According to Hennessey’s mother, her son Brian may have been fighting his wife because she (wife at the time) disrespected Brian’s prostitute friend.
“Cypress High School is within spitting distance of the proposed dispensary. With marijuana’s association to criminal behavior and child poisonings, we cannot let Mansfield go to pot. What in Jesus’ Name was City Council thinking?”
Pastor Robert O’Brian
The burning question is, are the goalposts being moved by Ohio Cannabis Control to allow for a pot shop in Mansfield? Mapping software indicates the Backroad Wellness property is approximately 481 feet from Cypress High School at 1160 West Fourth Street. According to the Ohio Revised Code, the required distance for a marijuana dispensary must be no less than 500 feet from the corners of a parcel with a school, church, park or library. The tale of the tape is different on the field with measurements between the weed shop and school totaling only 420 feet.
Two city leaders who supported marijuana in last summer’s 5-3 vote have either left office or will be leaving. Councilmember Stephanie Zader resigned last Fall. Fellow Republican Laura Burns is not running for re-election this coming Fall. Burns got pushback for supporting cannabis since her City Ward 1 opposed weed in the ’23 General election.
One local faith leader joins the chorus of citizens upset with Mansfield City Council. “Cypress High School is within spitting distance of the proposed dispensary,” says Mansfield Pastor Robert O’Brian. “With marijuana’s association to criminal behavior and child poisonings, we cannot let Mansfield go to pot. What in Jesus’ name was City Council thinking?”
Not only are children impacted thru exposure to marijuana and THC products, the judgement of some parents become impaired. Last year one customer at Hannessey’s Backroad Wellness dispensary in Lima, Ohio threatened to burn the dispensary down if the business did not provide childcare.
In 2020, a Mansfield resident charged with possession of marijuana threatened to start a riot and launch three separate attacks on Mansfield stores. In 2009, a man with pending marijuana charges fire-bombed Mansfield City Hall causing $800,000 in damages. Local incidents of car chases, police stand-offs, and mass shootings also involve pot.
Nevertheless, the Madison Board of Trustees rejected Hennessey’s February 2024 proposal for a weed dispensary after several Madison clergy made a presentation. The faith leaders showed that allowing dispensaries is not a fiscally-responsible approach. The presentation included a Colorado study revealing exorbitant social costs associated with the cannabis industry. Presently 13 of the 18 townships in Richland County prohibit commercial cannabis.
Hannessey has plans to open his marijuana dispensary in the not-so-distant future. The word on the street is, if the proverbial goalposts are not moved, the dispensary idea may become a distant memory.
The Bottom Line:
The Bible says in Psalm 37, “Do not get upset because of evildoers,
Do not be envious of wrongdoers. For they will wither quickly like the grass, and decay like the green plants.”
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