By Jesse Jones, The Paper. — Smoke shop and cannabis dispensary owners rolled into the Albuquerque City Council chambers Monday, Aug. 3 and watched a zoning bill that would have separated the two businesses go up in smoke.
City councilors voted 6-3 to reject Ordinance O-26-39, sponsored by Councilor Renée Grout at the request of Mayor Tim Keller’s administration. The proposal would have updated the city’s Integrated Development Ordinance to require cannabis dispensaries and nicotine retailers to stay at least 660 feet apart to prevent clustering while keeping a 330-foot buffer around schools and daycares. It also would have expanded the city’s existing 11 p.m. cannabis curfew to nicotine shops. Grout voted for the ordinance, joined by Councilors Joaquín Baca and Brook Bassan.
The vote killed the measure, which had already failed in the Land Use, Planning and Zoning Committee before Grout brought it back for Monday’s council meeting.
Albuquerque Police Deputy Chief Luke Languit said clustered cannabis dispensaries and nicotine retailers create hotspots for drug trafficking, open-air drug use and violent crime. “When the drug traffickers are making drug deals and it turns bad, it turns to violent crime,” Languit said. “We’ve had aggravated assaults, we’ve had armed robberies, and we’ve even had homicides happen in front of nicotine retailers.”
Opponents argued the proposal unfairly singles out cannabis and smoke shops without evidence of a problem. Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn said the proposal creates a solution for an issue that does not exist and unfairly singles out cannabis and smoke shops. “Our regulatory structure is supposed to help the citizens of Albuquerque, and we are supposed to be supporting small businesses,” Fiebelkorn said. “And rather than doing that, we are looking for a boogeyman, and we are saying your cannabis store is that boogeyman.” She said the city has no other examples of banning one type of business from operating near another, aside from rules such as school separation requirements, and said she does not want city regulations used to push businesses out.