Marijuana case settled

HURON — The city council recently approved a mutual settlement to end a lawsuit over a medical marijuana dispensary's location.A dispensary is a pharmacy-like operation where patients with prescriptions can purchase medical marijuana flowers, vapors, tinctures, patches, edibles, oils and other items. It remains illegal to smoke marijuana recreationally in Ohio.Firelands Scientific, formerly known as Ohio Patients' Choice (OPC), received a license to grow and sell medical marijuana in the city. It built a marijuana cultivation facility in the Huron Corporate Park off of Rye Beach Road.It planned to put a dispensary in the old Burger King on Cleveland Road after the Ohio Board of Pharmacy and the city approved the location.Community members, however, objected to the location's proximity to Woodlands Intermediate School, and they complained to council.Council responded with a vote that effectively outlawed the dispensary at the old Burger King, approving a resolution forbidding the operation of a dispensary within 1,000 feet of a school, playground, library or church.Firelands Scientific worked with the city to find another site. They decided to build one next to the cultivation center in the corporate park.The pharmacy board, however, never signed off on the new location and the company's plans were idled as other dispensaries appeared in the area, including ones in Sandusky and Fremont.The company filed a lawsuit against the city and the board for the potential losses the delay caused it. After almost a year of legal discussions, it appears all the parties involved have come to a mutual settlement.The settlement would give state and city approval for a dispensary at the corporate park and the company would withdraw all claims of damages."The city is pleased the retail dispensary will now be relocated to the corporate park campus, that this litigation can be terminated and claims for any damages can be released," city manager Andy White said.At its last meeting, the city council approved the settlement by six votes to one.We are extremely pleased with this resolution. Now that we have a settlement on a retail location, we can start the work to build a facility that paves the way for patients to access legal cannabis medicine, which will help Ohioans who suffer from a host of severe medical conditions — such as cancer, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, and PTSD, to name a few," said Cassie Neiden, the communication and marketing director for Firelands Scientific.Neiden said the dispensary will be a separate building next to the company's cultivation facility. There's no timeline for when they will start construction or when it will open.The dispensary will be staffed with trained professionals with extensive knowledge about medicinal cannabis and the products available in Ohio," Neiden said. "It will carry Firelands Scientific medical cannabis that was produced at our headquarters in the Huron Corporate Park, as well as products made by other esteemed cultivators and processors throughout the state. The building will be highly secure with an on-site security team, video cameras and a compliant check-in process.*Editor's note: This article has been updated from its original version to include more information from Firelands Scientific on the future dispensary.Reach reporter Michael Harrington at michaelharrington@sanduskyregister.com, follow the Register at Facebook.com/SanduskyRegisterStaff at the medical marijuana cultivation center in the Huron Corporate Park look at some of the crops they're growing.