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Resident urges Mesa to allow adult-use marijuana delivery, citing Proposition 207 and state statute limits
Summary
A District 6 resident told the council Feb. 24 that Mesa’s Ordinance 5,601, which prohibits adult-use marijuana delivery, may conflict with Proposition 207 and Arizona Revised Statutes and urged the council to begin amending the ordinance to allow deliveries and tax revenue.
Michael Perrin, a District 6 resident, told the Mesa City Council Feb. 24 that the city’s prohibition on adult-use marijuana delivery under Ordinance 5,601 may be more restrictive than state law allows and urged council members to begin a code change.
“Again, 5,601 created a prohibition of marijuana for recreational marijuana,” Perrin told the council during the public-comment period. He cited Proposition 207, passed Nov. 3, 2020, and certified Nov. 30, 2020, and said the ballot measure and Arizona law (he referenced Arizona Revised Statutes §36-2857) limit a locality’s authority. Perrin said, “Part of Prop 207 created, Arizona ARS 36 28 57, which gave the city the ability to create your own ordinances, rules, regulations regarding adult use marijuana. However, it does have a, an actual limitation on your authority that a locality may not enact an ordinance regulation or rule that is more restrictive than a comparable organ ordinance regulation or rule that applied to medical marijuana.”
Perrin urged the council to initiate the process to amend the city code to permit adult-use delivery. “I’ve been encouraging the council to take this seriously,” he said, adding that delivery could have a “net positive benefit on public safety as delivering marijuana from the business rather than having a consumer drive to pick it up reduces traffic on the roads, makes things safer.” He also said delivery businesses are regulated and tracked and that other cities have moved to permit delivery since Nov. 1, 2024.
Perrin told the council the change he requests appears to require altering two sections of city code and noted the municipal adoption process can include planning and zoning study sessions and public hearings. He emphasized that the ordinance change would allow the city to share in tax revenues the current prohibition excludes.
Perrin’s comments were presented during the meeting’s public-comment period; no council action on Ordinance 5,601 is recorded in the public transcript for this meeting.
