Detroit City Council members passed a resolution Tuesday that documents the harms posed by e-cigarette and marijuana use among youth as the council prepares to restrict where these products can be advertised in the city.
In Detroit, ads for alcohol and tobacco are prohibited within a 1,000-foot radius of child care centers, schools, libraries, parks and other similar locations. The council on Tuesday directed the city’s law department to draft an ordinance that would extend that prohibition to marijuana and e-cigarette products.
“As youth, we need to look to prevent them from getting into a substance use problem with marijuana,” Councilperson Scott Benson said, adding that more and more products are coming out, with “stronger and stronger levels.”
The council approved a resolution Tuesday that documents the legal basis and need for the ordinance, according to a memo from the law department. The resolution notes that the city of Detroit shall move forward with preparing a proposed ordinance to amend city code to proscribe, or limit, the location of certain advertising signs that advertise marijuana and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) products.
ENDS represent a class of tobacco products known by many names, such as e-cigarettes, vapes and mods, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Earlier this year, Councilwoman Angela Whitfield Calloway asked the city’s law department to draft an ordinance to ban, or possibly restrict, further cannabis advertising on billboards in Detroit, saying its “taking over our city.” Some cannabis store operators have argued that such restrictions would violate their free speech rights.
Graham Anderson with the city’s Law Department said at Tuesday’s council meeting that it is why it was legally necessary for the city to pass a resolution about the need for an ordinance.
He said the document lays out why the city needs “this restriction on speech.” The resolution lists numerous facts about marijuana and e-cigarettes, including that teenage marijuana use is at its highest level in 30 years, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Anderson said the Law Department is hoping to make “significant progress” on the ordinance during the council’s recess, which runs from late November to early January. He said the ordinance is sponsored by Benson and Council member Angela Whitfield Calloway.
Whitfield Calloway said the city has to partner with Detroit Public Schools Community District on this issue.
“A lot of them (students) are engaging in this substance use, and now it’s abuse,” she said, “and it’s doing a lot of damage to their brains, which has been medically proven, and that’s what we’re trying to prevent.”
Earlier this year, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti called on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and a host of federal, state and local elected leaders to enact immediate policy changes to address the rise of edible marijuana use among underage high school students.
But Councilman Coleman A. Young II expressed concerns about the ordinance and the resolution. He said he would rather deal with the issue through education, including by the health department, rather than restrict advertising. He noted that many of the marijuana ads he has seen are “benign at best.”
“I think there are better ways that we can address this issue, quite frankly, and I think that what kids are exposed to on television and the internet, I think, is much more pervasive and provocative, if you will,” he said.
asnabes@detroitnews.com
Detroit passes resolution as it gets closer to restricting marijuana ads – Detroit News
