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Hancock prepares to discuss marijuana

Jon Jaehnig/For the Gazette The Hancock City Council will be holding a public information and comments session at the Finnish American Heritage Center on Quincy St. The session will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7. A survey and two-page informational document will be posted on the city’s website prior to the session.

HANCOCK — The Hancock City Council has scheduled a public informational session on Hancock’s options to opt back in to Michigan’s legal recreational Marijuana system. The informational session will be held at the Finnish American Heritage Center on Quincy Street at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7.

Michigan voted to legalize recreational marijuana, but individual municipalities are required to opt out or to draft their own legislation concerning business permits.

Hancock initially voted to opt out while looking into the pros and cons of opting back in. An ad hoc Recreational Marijuana Committee was created, consisting of council members John Slivon, William Lytle, and Whitney Warstler. They have since proposed ordinances for the city to adopt and opt back in.

At a special meeting of the council last week, the committee moved to introduce their ordinances. However, concerned citizens suggested during public comment that the council had not done enough to engage the community. The council decided to schedule the public informational session followed by a public hearing prior to voting on whether or not to adopt the ordinances and opt back in.

“We will be putting notices out and posting on our website to make as many people as possible aware of the meeting,” said City Clerk, Treasurer, and Acting City Manager Mary Babcock. “I would expect all the council to be there.”

The city will also send invitations to businesses that may be affected as well as the Downtown Development Authority and the Planning Council. The Planning Council would necessarily become involved in the event that the city adopts the proposed ordinances because two of them would impact city zoning.

The event will be an opportunity for the community to become more educated on the issue and for the council to gauge public opinion but no formal decisions will be made that evening and the event will not constitute or include a public vote.

“I don’t want there to be any action items or any decisions made there,” said Mayor Paul LaBine.

The primary speakers so far will be members of the ad hoc Recreational Marijuana Committee, though the council is looking into having other parties present as well. The committee will soon release an online survey allowing community members to voice their opinions before the info session.

“(The survey) would generate into an Excel file so that the committee and the council could review the types of comments we are receiving,” said Lytle. “Depending on the number of comments, we should be able to cluster these into different types of arguments and make sure that if the city moves forward with something we’re addressing or mitigating the risks associated with different arguments and if we don’t move forward we’re able to think about what the implications would be.”

“I don’t think (the survey results) could be published in a peer-reviewed journal but it should be very educational and enlightening,” said Labine. “I can only speak for myself, but I’m intending on reading every comment very carefully.”

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