Recreational pot sales stay legal in Olivette and Des Peres
ST. LOUIS COUNTY — An effort to ban recreational pot sales in two suburbs here went up in smoke Tuesday after failing to garner enough support from voters.
In Olivette, 53% of voters approved a ban. But the measure needed at least 60% approval from city voters to pass, under state law.
In Des Peres, a ban failed to get even a simple majority approval. Roughly 55% of voters rejected the idea.
Had the proposed bans passed, the cities would have been the first Missouri communities to outlaw sale of adult-use marijuana within city limits since voters legalized it statewide in 2022.
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.
It requires at least 60% of city voters approve such a ban.
This year was the first opportunity to try.
Leaders in both cities put the question on the ballot at the behest of dozens of residents who claimed dispensaries would be too close to residential neighborhoods and bring odor, crime and other disturbances.
Leaders of one other Missouri community, Lebanon, previously voted to put the question on the November ballot — but then reversed the decision after finding sales tax revenues were benefiting two drug-prevention and treatment programs. Lebanon, a city of about 15,000 residents between Rolla and Springfield, has one dispensary in the city.
A ban in Olivette, population 8,500, or Des Peres, population 9,100, would not have barred marijuana dispensaries from locating in either city. But a ban would have limited dispensaries to selling only to adults with state-issued licenses to use the drug for medicinal purposes.
In Des Peres, that includes Root 66, a dispensary at 12095 Manchester Road, which opened last year. Olivette has no marijuana businesses.
Recreational marijuana was legalized in November 2022 with the support of 53% of Missouri voters. Since then, dozens of recreational marijuana dispensaries have opened across the St. Louis region, including several in cities neighboring both Des Peres and Olivette.
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.
Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. St. Louis County reporter
