Sean C. Morgan
The city’s Public Safety Committee will discuss with the entire City Council whether to hold a public meeting to talk about marijuana in Sweet Home.
Members reached that conclusion Tuesday, March 10, after Councilor Jeff Goodwin proposed an ordinance to the committee, which includes councilors Greg Mahler, Dave Trask and Bruce Hobbs, to outlaw the manufacturing, sale and use of marijuana in Sweet Home, including medical marijuana.
City Attorney Robert Snyder told the committee that the state law likely pre-empts city decisions to ban marijuana. Measure 91 uses the appropriate language to rule out local bans on marijuana by cities.
Goodwin, who is an attorney in private practice, told the committee that it is untested, and he believes the city could prevail if it banned marijuana. He believes that, in a Bureau of Labor and Industries case, the state Supreme Court said that the state’s medical marijuana law violates the federal law.
Snyder agreed that, in court, it could go either way, and both said they expect that a ban on marijuana would be tested in court.
“Courts kind of do what they want to do, is the reality,” Goodwin told the committee. “No one knows how this will come out in court.”
Some say the law favors the city, while others call into question whether the state law preempts city law on this issue, he said.
Goodwin asked that the committee put the question in front of the public at the council level.
While he thinks everything connected to the use of marijuana should be considered criminal, it’s the community that should decide. The city could pass an ordinance that handles marijuana as violations with civil fines instead of misdemeanors and felonies.
“I just think it’s bad for this city,” Goodwin said. “As we know, marijuana is an illegal drug.”
It’s illegal in Oregon, Washington, Colorado – everywhere in the country because it is illegal federally, he said. He suggested putting up a sign at the entrance to the city, saying, “This is a drug-free city.”
He said that everyone he has talked to one-on-one is in favor of banning marijuana.
It may be risky to pursue a ban on marijuana, he said, but the public “may be willing to incur that risk.”
Former councilor Scott McKee Jr., who said he uses medical marijuana and was speaking on behalf of the medical marijuana dispensary and possibly for a recreational marijuana business, promised the committee that if it even started pursuing a ban on marijuana, there would be a lawsuit.
He said the anti-marijuana rhetoric is the same as it was in the past regarding alcohol and gays. He said Goodwin’s proposal asks the city to be a Guinea pig.
He told the committee there is no reason Sweet Home should stand out for testing the law. He complained that the committee was considering it based on the request of a single man, while the state passed Measure 91 last fall with 56 percent of voters supporting it – and 46 percent in Sweet Home.
“You are banning their recreational activity,” McKee said. “As soon as you move forward, you can be pulled into court. That’s why I came here tonight. There will be a lawsuit. You guys are taking an unnecessary risk.”
Sweet Home wouldn’t impact the state or the country, he said. Sweet Home would lag behind, like carrying laws forward regarding blacks and gays.
“You’ll look like fools,” McKee said. “I promise you, if you move forward, it will soak up time and money you don’t have. It’s not going to go away lightly.”
Dr. Henry Wolthuis, a Sweet Home resident, retired dentist and chairman of the Planning Commission, said he doesn’t think Sweet Home needs to react to the threat of a lawsuit.
“I would certainly be interested in getting this out in the public and do what’s best for the city,” Wolthuis said.
City Manager Craig Martin said that Measure 91 allows residents to use the petition process to ban the sale of marijuana. If citizens did use the petition process, the first time Sweet Home residents could vote on the question would be November 2016.
Most of the provisions of Measure 91, which makes marijuana legal, take effect on July 1, Martin said.
Mahler, Trask and Hobbs all said that Sweet Home does not need to be the Guinea pig on this issue.
“I don’t want marijuana in our community, but our hands are tied,” Mahler said.
“I don’t want recreational marijuana in our community either,” Trask said.
The mechanism for residents to vote is a solution to the question, Hobbs said. “I have zero interest in being the Guinea pig.”
The committee members discussed holding a public hearing, but settled on talking with the full council about a possible public meeting. Trask will report the committee’s discussion to the council at its next regular meeting, 7:30 p.m. on March 24 in the Council Chamber at City Hall, 1140 12th Ave.