A local group is asking Cascade County officials to consider a cap on the number of marijuana dispensaries that are able to operate in the county, or other restrictions.

County officials have said the law doesn’t allow them to restrict the number of dispensaries that can operate in the county and since voters approved marijuana in Cascade County, they can’t do much beyond restricting the zoning districts they can operate in, which they’ve already done.

Kristy Pontet-Stroop and Beth Morrison of Alliance for Youth and the Substance Abuse Prevention Alliance spoke to county commissioners during their March 5 meeting about their concerns of the access local youth have to marijuana and associated products.

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Pontet-Stroop and Morrison said they had asked for a cap of one dispensary per 15,000 people in the past, but Cascade County is already beyond that with 15 or 16 dispensaries operating in the county.

Pontet-Stroop told The Electric that they had asked Cascade County to cap the allowed number of dispensaries as recreational marijuana was being legalized across Montana.

Cascade County voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana in 2020 with 54.73 percent voting in favor and 45.27 percent against. By the numbers, 21,747 voted in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana and 17,986 voted against the measure, according the Montana Secretary of State records.

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Now, they’re asking commissioners to cap the number at the current 15 dispensaries; help remove one downtown that they say is operating questionably, is no longer licensed by the state and has been investigated by the city; and not allow any more dispensaries to open in the county.

“We have more than the recommended amount, why do we need more,” Pontet-Stroop said.

She said limiting the number of dispensaries now would give the community time to evaluate legalization of recreational marijuana and how to respond.

During the March 5 meeting, County Commissioner Joe Briggs said that they can’t use zoning to limit the number of businesses in the county.

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Pontet-Stroop and Morrison shared an email from the Montana Department of Revenue they’d received in which Kristan Barbour, the agency’s Cannabis Control Division administrator, told them, “local governments may elect to limit the number of businesses and where they are located, it’s a local control issue. If they are not following the law,  both the Cannabis Control Division and local law enforcement may intervene. This is similar to a bar not allowing children to enter their premises.”

County Attorney Josh Racki told The Electric that he’s read the statutes pertaining to marijuana as well as other laws and cases and cannot find a way that the county could restrict the number of marijuana dispensaries, which are licensed by the state, much like bars and casinos.

He said that when the state issues licenses to those types of operations, there’s nowhere in the law that he can find allowing counties to limit how many can operate in their county.

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Racki said during the March 5 commission meeting that it would require a legislative change to allow counties to limit the number of dispensaries.

Commissioner Jim Larson said “we’d like to help you, but if the law doesn’t allow it, we can’t.”

The Electric followed up with the DoR asking if they believed counties could cap the number of dispensaries and their response was, “that statute allows local governments the ability to determine the business landscape for cannabis related businesses. Cascade County is a green county meaning more than 50 percent of voters approved of I-190, allowing cannabis related businesses to operate within the county.”

The law regarding local control of marijuana dispensaries in counties that approved recreational marijuana in 2020 states, “to protect the public health, safety, or welfare, a local government may by ordinance or otherwise regulate a marijuana business that operates within the local government’s jurisdictional area. The regulations may include but are not limited to inspections of licensed premises, including but not limited to indoor cultivation facilities, dispensaries, manufacturing facilities, and testing laboratories in order to ensure compliance with any public health, safety, and welfare requirements established by the department or the local government.”

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Pontet-Stroop said, “we’re just frustrated because we’re getting told different things.”

Briggs said the county used zoning to regulate marijuana as they had the clear legal ability to control locations of marijuana dispensaries.

In late 2021, commissioners updated the zoning regulations to allow recreational marijuana operations only in heavy industrial areas, where medical marijuana dispensaries were already allowed in Cascade County.

The county also retained setbacks for marijuana of 500 feet from schools and worship facilities and they require location/conformance permits.

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The city had prohibited marijuana entirely in 2010 and the rule had not been challenged since, including in the years that medical marijuana was legalized in Montana and Cascade County, but not within the city limits.

In 2022, a local dispensary owner sued the city over the prohibition and in September 2022, the City Commission adopted a new zoning ordinance that allowed marijuana operations only within light and heavy industrial districts in the city limits.

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As a result of district court ruling in October 2022, that ordinance went into effect immediately.

In November 2022, Great Falls voters opted to allow marijuana operations in the city, meaning the new ordinance remained in effect.

Several dispensaries have opened in the city in the areas allowed under city zoning regulations.

Pontet-Stroop said during the March 5 meeting that the voters said they wanted marijuana legal in the county, but they believe they need to limit youth access to the modern products that have higher potencies, causing health and behavioral problems and targeting children.

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In the fall of 2021, as the county was addressing their zoning regulations pertaining to marijuana, Pontet-Stroop said that drug use is affecting young people and it impacts crime rates and the education system.

“If you think the money you’re going to make off this is going to be enough to deal with the social issues,” she said in October 2021, “you’ll continue to see homelessness, you’ll continue to see the crime go up.”

During an October 2023 Great Falls Public Schools board meeting, Andrea Savage, the district’s student wellness coordinator, presented data from the 2022 Montana Prevention Needs Assessment, which focuses on eighth, tenth and twelfth grade students to survey health risk behaviors such as alcohol, tobacco, dropouts, delinquency and violence.

The survey also includes questions on risk and protective factors, including attitudes and opinions that research has shown to predict involvement in these negative health risk behaviors, according to Savage’s presentation.

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Among 484 eighth grade students surveyed, 29 percent believed there is no risk to using marijuana; 49.4 percent believed life is not worth it; and 34.4 percent were inclined to believe they are a failure.

Among 528 tenth grade students surveyed, 37.8 percent believed there is no risk to using marijuana; 43.7 percent believed life isn’t worth living; and 36.3 percent were inclined to believe they are a failure.

Among the 296 twelfth grade students surveyed, 50.5 percent believed their is no risk to using marijuana; 38 percent believed life isn’t worth living; and 29.8 percent were inclined to think they are a failure.

She said the data tells her they need more education on the risk to youth development from marijuana and making intentional connections for students.

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The county sent the question of a local option marijuana tax to the voters, which they approved, in November 2022.

The local tax is three percent on medical and recreational marijuana.

Under state law, the county retains 50 percent of the local tax revenues, five percent goes to the Montana Department of Revenue and 45 percent go to municipalities in the county. That 45 percent is split among the incorporated cities and towns based on the ratio of their population to the total county population. That includes the City of Great Falls, Belt, Cascade and Neihart.

According to data from the Montana Department of Revenue, compiled by the Cascade County Substance Abuse Prevention Alliance, there were $20,624,957.65 of taxable marijuana sales in 2023 in Cascade County.

Of that, $560,194.62 was collected in the local option tax.

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Of that total, $280,097.31 was retained by the county; $252,087.58 was split between Great Falls, Belt, Cascade and Neihart; and $28,009.73 went to the DoR.

In July 2023, Melissa Kinzler, city finance director, told City Commissioners that the city had received it’s first marijuana tax payment of the fiscal year, which was $27,704.98.

She said the countywide total from marijuana local tax revenue for February through April was $62,000, less than officials had been expecting based on last year’s sales figures.

The state taxes medical marijuana at four percent and recreational marijuana at 20 percent.

Those funds are distributed as follows, according to the DOR website:

• $6 million to the Healing and Ending Addiction through Recovery and Treatment account established in 16-12-122, MCA.
• After the HEART distribution, the remainder goes to:
  • 20 percent to Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks to be used solely as funding for wildlife habitat
  • 4 percent to the state park account
  • 4 percent to the trails and recreational facilities account
  • 4 percent to the nongame wildlife account
  • 3 percent or $200,000, whichever is less, to the veterans and surviving spouses state special revenue account
  • $150,000 to the board of crime control to fund crisis intervention team training
  • for the biennium beginning July 1, 2021, $300,000 to the Department of Justice to administer grant funding to local and state law enforcement agencies for the purpose of purchasing and training drug detection canines and canine handlers, including canines owned by local law enforcement agencies to replace canines who were trained to detect marijuana
  • the remainder to the general fund