By Neil Doyle
BLOOMINGTON – The Bloomington City Council will vote Monday night to either opt-in or opt-out for cannabis sales as the new state law legalizing recreational marijuana goes into effect New Year’s Day. If the council decides to opt-out, the leader of the city said he’ll use his power to veto the decision.
Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner has only used a veto two times. He said using that power should only be in an extreme circumstance and opting-out would warrant a veto.
“We would be incurring all the costs and have none of the possible revenues,” said Renner. “Whether we like it or not, cannabis is going to be legal in a few weeks.”
Renner said he thinks there’s majority support to allow marijuana sales.
Meantime, the council will also consider recommendations made by Bloomington’s Planning Commission. One of those is to allow on site marijuana use at dispensaries, which would make the city the first in Illinois to allow on site consumption.
“I can see the pros and the cons, but I don’t think there is much support on the council for it,” said Renner.
Many of the panel’s recommendations are similar to the town of Normal’s guidelines who already voted to allow cannabis-related businesses.
Neil Doyle can be reached at [email protected]
