WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. – In the month of September, Wayne County had over $29 million worth of marijuana sold in the county alone.
Part of that may be thanks to the many marijuana billboards we’ve been seeing nearly everywhere you turn.
City council members are now discussing restrictions that may potentially change that.
City Councilwoman Angela Whitfield Calloway hopes to change by introducing a new ordinance that would keep the billboards out of areas close to children.
“In certain service areas like a public library, like a school, or a church, a playground, a playfield, you can not have these billboards anywhere near them within 1000 feet,” said Calloway.
The motivation behind it came when Calloway heard from a young man worried about the effects the advertisements would have on his friends.
“We had a kid here back in May who was crying. He was talking about how many there are and how he’s concerned about his friends, seeing them every day, possibly starting to use at an early age,” Calloway said.
But these are only the beginning steps in a process that will take some time to go into effect.
“It’s on the agenda today, just for it to go to public health and safety as a referral,” Calloway said. “It will be discussed in the committee, then hopefully we’ll have a public hearing set hopefully in the next 45 days before recess in December.”
An ordinance already in effect restricts tobacco companies from advertising 1,000 feet from schools. That would amend the ordinance to include marijuana companies now as well.