By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Ortonville- At their Monday night meeting, the council had a discussion on businesses carrying cannabidiol (CBD) oil products in the village limits.
“A local pharmacy is considering moving into the vacant space next to Fitbody Bootcamp, they sell a line of CBD oil, and they wanted to make sure that council would be okay with that prior to signing a lease agreement,” said Tonja Brice, village president.
“CBD oil does not contain any THC, which is the active ingredient in marijuana, it’s used as a natural healing agent for aches, pains and swelling, and Liz (Edwards) was able to have a discussion with Lt. Glover, who has indicated it does not cause a concern for them.”
CBD oil is an extract of cannabis, and is marketed as a supplement.

While there are a few brands that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for prescription use, many are not FDA regulated. Dietary supplements are not approved by the FDA prior to being put on the market, though they are not permitted to be marketed for the purpose of treating, diagnosing, preventing or curing diseases. Some supplements may have those effects though, and CBD oil uses range from treating chronic pain or anxiety.
“For those that don’t know, it’s an extract of cannabis, and as you extract the THC, all the THC, supposedly there’s zero THC left in these oils, right? And there’s probably a very, very extremely small amount, but it cannot be a 100 percent. It’s probably so small you’re not going to feel the effects,” said Dan Eschmann, president pro tempore. “So, to me, okay, we made a decision way back when to eliminate the sale of marijuana within the village limits, I’m not saying that this is a bad thing for people. I do know there’s healing agents, I do know it’s a drug that people use to help them do certain things, but the fact that it is an extract of cannabis, and it is linked to other things, not just healing powers, so I’d hate to see this facility, how would we monitor it such that is doesn’t migrate to selling marijuana in the village, how do we monitor that the oils that they are using is free of THC, how would we do that? Would we be able to do that?”
CBD oil may contain very small amounts of THC, which is the active ingredient in marijuana, according to the FDA, however it is not enough to get high.
“If I could remind council that back when our community voted by an almost 2-1 vote to approve recreational marijuana at the election, this council took the time not to review information on that and instead acted very quickly to prohibit that and took very seriously Lt. Glover’s recommendation on that topic,” said councilman Larry Hayden. “Why is it that now we want to take more time to review when Lt. Glover here says he has no problem with it?”
The topic was just a discussion item, though some members of the council expressed interest in a resolution or ordinance.
“If we want to explore this, and research it more before we give our formal ‘OK’, since we’re not covered in our current ordinance, should we propose something so we’re covered, we can always rescind the ordinance later on after we get more information, but at least we’re protected until we do,” said Coleen Skornicka, council member. “I personally don’t know, I mean, I guess I know about the THC in the CBD, I don’t know if it’s traces, but I guess if it is the consent of council to want to explore it and find out more, okay, great we can go that route, or do we want to protect ourselves until we find out more information and put something in place temporarily until we do a resolution, just so that we don’t come in and then we’re stuck, so to speak.”
A resolution or ordinance was not formally proposed in a motion, though the council did table the discussion further while research is being done.
“I personally am very hesitant when we have no idea, and we’re disagreeing, to make a resolution on something that we’re disagreeing on,” said Brice.