![](https://www.wjbc.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/389/2020/02/Weed.jpg)
By WMBD-TV
NORMAL – Normal is one step closer to changing the zoning codes for cannabis businesses. On Thursday, the Normal Planning Commission voted to approve recommended changes that will double the distance between cannabis businesses and churches, daycares, and schools.
Currently, there are three approved cannabis licenses in the town with one business in operation. If passed by Town Council, the new codes will not impact the three businesses that currently have a license.
The new codes will also require cannabis businesses to be 1,5000 feet from one another. Commissioner Bob Broad was the sole naysayer. He wants evidence to support claims from the community such as cannabis leads to addiction.
“The history in our country of laws around cannabis has fallen especially hard on communities of color. In the view of many analysts, that whole history of suffering and incarceration that followed from a wide view of the devil weed were misguided and uninformed and supported by nothing except fear and possibly, if we want to be honest, racism,” said Broad. “I need to know whether there’s any evidence to support the proposed change to suggest that somehow it’ll improve anyone’s life. Without that evidence, I risk falling into a history in our society that has been profoundly unjust.”
Current Code:
- 100 feet away from churches, daycare centers, and schools
- 200 feet away from R-1 zoning districts
Proposed Code:
- 200 feet away from R-1 zoning districts, churches daycare centers, and schools
- 1,500 feet between dispensaries and other cannabis business
Council is expected to review the changes on August 21.