Lake County Gazette

At its Jan. 10 council meeting, the Libertyville Village Board voted against putting an advisory referendum on its April 4 ballot on whether or not the village should allow retail sale of adult usage marijuana items at state-licensed dispensaries in the community.

The council voted 6-0 against the motion and stopped the item from being put on the ballot.

An advisory referendum is not a legally binding vote, rather it is a way to garner public opinion on a topic within their community.

“I've probably had in the past two or three weeks (had) 20, 25 calls ... on this issue of cannabis and whether we wanted to have it in Libertyville," said trustee Scott Adams. "I've only had one person that said that they really wanted it. The rest of them were very much like your comments tonight. They didn't want to have it in Libertyville. I grew up here. It's been a great place to live. My kids live here. My nine grandkids live here. Is having the ability for us to have a license to sell marijuana our legacy that we want? I don't know that it's something that I want to hang my name on.”

The board received a lot of public comment on this item. The majority of residents who spoke were opposed to allowing the sale of marijuana in the community. They expressed concern  over minors using marijuana items, whether they were smoking or consuming edibles, and did not want to give them an easier access than they already had. They also questioned the reason behind allowing this type of sale, as they didn’t think that the village was in need of the additional revenue. 

The village has previously allowed medical dispensaries as long as they were within the village’s industrial parks, and no dispensaries have taken them up on that. 

Trustees recounted receiving calls, emails, and comments from residents who were opposed to the proposal.