“Certainly we are very displeased”, Mahja Sulemanjee, CEO of High Haven told the press immediately after the Normal Town Council denied her company a Special Use Permit for a cannabis dispensary. “We have done a lot of work with the community and with the city council and with the zoning board to try to get a favorable position,” she said.
Sulemanjee continued, “With possibly elections coming down the line it seems like there is some bias and possibly potentially some discrimination. So we are feeling unfortunate about the situation.”
The Normal Town Council denied the permit on a five to one vote with only Kimberly Harris supporting the measure. Kathleen Lorenz, Stan Nord and Karyn Smith are all running for reelection. All three voted no.
The Town Staff recommended approving the Special Use Permit for the dispensary, The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) recommended granting the permit on a 4-0 vote. While Nord often votes against staff recommendations it is rare that Lorenz and Smith do.
Cannabis Doesn’t Stink to High Haven But it Does to Some Normal Residents
Gabe Judd, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for High Haven, told us, “As a long-term resident of Bloomington Normal I am terribly disappointed with my fellow citizens that they put their personal beliefs in front of being practical, that they put the needs of the community behind their personal needs to push an agenda that is not based on the science.”
Judd continued, “It is unfortunate, because now a social equity candidate, a small business, and we try to support small businesses in this community right, was just denied the opportunity to open up.”
We asked Judd to tell us about the difference between the current company running a dispensary in Normal and his business. He said, “What you have in town is Beyond Hello, the retail arm of Jushi which is a multi-state operator with a $300 million market cap. They have a monopoly on the entire community.”
“We are a five person cannabis start up,” Judd pointed out. We have no market cap. We are doing everything we can. We are borrowing. We are doing everything within our powers to try to get operational.”
Harris struggled with legislating morality asking rhetorically during the meeting, “How do we truly legislate morality?” If I legislate one person’s morality today, I will have to legislate someone else’s moral compass tomorrow,” she said.
Harris told Cities 92.9, “Either they will get it legally where there are parameters or they will get it illegally. And if you ask me I prefer for them to get it legally where there are parameters and there are safety nets, there are things that help protect versus how you can get it. I have known people who have gone the illegal route before cannabis got to be legal in the United States and they got stuff that was laced and it killed them.”
We asked Harris about the impact on the black community. She shared her thoughts saying, “You know when you talk about those communities of color, there has been a lot of other things and that is why particularly the social equity piece has been brought forth in the state of Illinois because for years minorities were being arrested and given long sentences for long periods of time for just possession.”
Harris continued, “We are not even talking about sale or even intent to sell, we are talking about just pure possession. And so there is always still that, that is still sitting, unsettlingly, in the conversation as well.”
John Malkin spoke during public comment in favor of the dispensary. In an interview with Cities after the item was voted on he told us, “We are missing the main point regarding what the state wanted to do with dispensaries. We want to reduce crime, correct, take it off the street. If you do not allow the competition drug dealers are still going to be in business to sell marijuana.”
Malikin went on to say, “The soon as more competition comes in, those prices start reducing and it’s not worth somebody taking the time to sell drugs. There’s no money to be made in it.”
Sulemanjee told the press High Haven didn’t come into the meeting with a back up plan and they will have to talk with their realtor and possibly look for another location or work with the owners of the current site and come back to see what they can do about this particular location.
