PEORIA, Ill. – Not everyone on the Peoria city Council wants to see the number of marijuana dispensaries expand, even as there are at least several pending applications for such facilities.
District 2 Council Member Chuck Grayeb — who suggested state cannabis revenue should help fund mental health and lung cancer treatments — tells fellow members the smoking of the green isn’t the best green line item in the city budget.
“We’ve wrapped our arms around this, and we think this is the second coming of peanut butter, and it is not,” said Grayeb. “I’m saying 20 years from now, maybe less, we’ll look back on all of this and realize how wrong it was.”
Grayeb claims he’s heard that that there is a disparate number of cases of cancer in minority communities, especially among females, where he claims treatment is less likely to be successful.
Long-term effects were also a concern of District 1’s Denise Jackson.
“I feel just like as with liquor stores, payday loan companies, I don’t want a bunch of those in my community, because of the long-term residual effects that we have seen, and the impact on poor communities, minorities, and others, and I’m just very, very concerned about that in the long run,” said Jackson.
Grayeb, Jackson, and others on the council want to see a moratorium on new dispensaries. Other members expressed concern if on-site consumption of cannabis was allowed at dispensaries.
“Usage of more cannabis leads to wanton behavior, because it’s intoxication that negatively impacts the cognitive abilities and self-control,” said Kiran Velpula, Ph.D., At-Large member.
“If we have a place for on-site consumption, and people take advantage of that, and they hop in their car, this doesn’t sound like a very good formula, as far as I’m concerned,” said John Kelly, At-Large member.
No changes have been made yet.
