Cannabis Dispensaries at Our Doorstep

• We know cannabis is a gateway drug, which leads to other things.  Medical research suggests 1 in 6 people who start using pot while under 18 will develop an addition according to the Journal of the Missouri Medical Association.
• Nothing positive for our children and their future can come from adding dispensaries to purchase pot for recreational use.  Increasing access to pot for adults will only make the drug more accessible to children, and expose them to the use of it in the home. We know from vaping-older siblings and parents are the main ways students gain access to vapes, cigarettes, and other drugs like marijuana. 
• The vape industry has targeted young people with their product with messaging like it isn't as addictive as cigarettes, and not as dangerous.  They create flavors and packaging that are marketed to children. Vape smells like cotton candy, raspberry, cherries, and bubble gum.  The same thing will occur at dispensaries.  Gummies, edibles, patches, and other less obvious forms of pot will certainly make their way into our schools, and these will not be detected by the vape sensors we have installed in our school. 
• One of the possible dispensary locations is right at the border of Liberty-Benton Local schools at the corner of St. Rt. 12 and Stanford Parkway.  Every day our buses travel past that location and students will be picked up and dropped off right across the street.  I do not want our students seeing a cannabis dispensary on their way to and from school every day, or being exposed to the culture surrounding it, while walking home from the bus. 
• One of the locations for a cannabis dispensary is within 500 feet of the Western Meadows subdivision, where I lived for 20 years, and where my children grew up playing outside with neighbors. Western Meadows is a great place for families to raise their children, but I am concerned for the safety of our kids, and for the property values of our homes with a dispensary that close. 
• Because of the proximity to I-75, I am concerned about the transiency of outsiders to our district and to the city of Findlay, and the clientele the dispensary will attract from outsiders to our community off of the I-75 corridor.
• 53% of voters in Hancock County (which includes Findlay City) rejected legalizing pot in Ohio.  Only 52% of Findlay City residents voted in favor-But this is hardly a mandate of the people on such a divisive issue for our community.  

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