Pot sales stay legal in Olivette and Des Peres. 'Deck stacked against us'

ST. LOUIS COUNTY — An effort to make two suburbs here the first cities in Missouri to ban recreational pot sales has gone up in smoke after failing to garner enough support from voters.

Dozens of residents in Des Peres and Olivette sought the ban after raising concerns dispensaries selling pot to recreational users would be too close to residential neighborhoods and bring odor, crime and other disturbances. They said their communities should be willing to forego sales tax revenue from legal weed and send customers to cities a few miles over to buy it.

But most voters in Tuesday's election disagreed.

In Olivette, 53% of voters approved of a ban, which supporters hoped would discourage any marijuana businesses from moving in. Under state law, the measure needed at least 60% approval to pass.

"The deck was stacked against us," Nina Miller, a resident with Clean Air Olivette, which petitioned for a ban, said Wednesday.

In Des Peres, a ban failed to get even a simple majority approval. Roughly 55% of voters rejected the idea. That means the city's lone dispensary, Root 66, can continue business as usual. A ban would have limited it to selling only for medicinal purposes.

State law bars cities from banning sales of marijuana for medical use, but it allows cities the option to have residents vote on banning recreational marijuana sales during November presidential elections.

This year was the first opportunity to try since 53% of Missouri voters two years ago approved a ballot initiative amending the state constitution by legalizing recreational marijuana. Olivette and Des Peres were the only two communities to consider the question.

Jack Cardetti, a spokesman for the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, which represents state-licensed marijuana businesses, said the results are "a testament to just how much Missourians have embraced the cannabis program and how well these small businesses have incorporated themselves in the local communities."

Leaders in Olivette, population 8,500, approved a citizen petition to put a ban on the ballot after dozens of residents helped ward off two marijuana businesses from locating there in recent years.

Miller, whose group petitioned for the ban, said the state amendment was written to make it difficult to get one approved. In addition to a 60% threshold, the amendment also required the ballot initiatives to ask voters to "forego any additional related local tax revenue."

"That was another strike against us," Miller said.

The question drew 4,238 votes in all. Miller said 53% of those voters approving a ban "sent a clear message."

"We've made a statement the majority does not want that kind of business here," she said.

Cardetti, with the association, said Missouri voters approved the 60% threshold when they voted for legalization.

"Most Missourians agreed that if you're going to overturn the will of the people, that their should be a slightly higher threshold to do so," he said.

In Des Peres, population 9,100, aldermen voted to put the question on the ballot after dozens of residents fought unsuccessfully to keep a dispensary there, Root 66, from selling to recreational users. But officials said they couldn't deny it a permit without violating state law, which only allows cities to regulate businesses' operating conditions. They opted to let residents decide.

Voters cast 5,578 ballots on the issue; more than 3,000 voted against it.

"I think the vast majority of Des Peres residents have made a determination that it's not a nuisance and that it's allowed under the Missouri constitution and they can continue to operate their business as they've done so," said Mayor Mark Becker.

A representative of Root 66 could not immediately be reached Wednesday.

Without a ban, cities also set regulations on both medical and recreational pot businesses' locations and operations, including limiting them to locations more than 1,000 feet away from homes, churches, schools and parks.

Dozens of recreational marijuana dispensaries have opened across the St. Louis region since 2022, including several in cities neighboring both Des Peres and Olivette.

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St. Louis County reporter