Green Leaf Dispensary owner Omar Pecantte walks the tract of land he purchased in St. John the Baptist Parish for a proposed satellite location of his medical marijuana pharmacy. (Photo: Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)
LAPLACE — Since Louisiana lawmakers legalized medical marijuana almost 10 years ago, licensed retail dispensaries have opened all across the state — but not in St. John the Baptist Parish, which does not permit the construction of medical marijuana pharmacies.
Although there are no laws or ordinances in St. John that explicitly prohibit medical marijuana pharmacies, parish officials recently denied a building permit to a pharmacy owner who had plans to expand into LaPlace. Omar Pecantte, a native of Jeanerette and owner of Green Leaf Dispensary, is now suing the parish over the permit denial, alleging parish officials have “politically constructed an ordinarily simple process to a road blocking complicated process in an attempt to avoid the issuance of the building permit.”
In denying the permit, the officials argued that their zoning ordinances do not specifically list “medical marijuana pharmacies” among the types of businesses allowed in the parish.
The situation began last summer when Pecantte purchased an empty tract of land in a commercial district on Belle Terre Boulevard just off Interstate 10 in LaPlace. The empty lot is located between a pain clinic and a 24-hour fitness center.
Pecantte owns dispensaries in Houma and Morgan City. His company, Green Leaf Dispensary, is licensed with the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy, which state law requires of medical marijuana dispensaries. The law also requires the dispensaries to employ licensed pharmacists. In 2018, Green Leaf was one of only 10 pharmacies in Louisiana to receive the special medical marijuana license that lawmakers created.
He began meeting and corresponding with St. John Parish Planning and Zoning officials in July to inform them about his business, according to court filings and emails. The land he purchased is zoned as a commercial district that permits pharmacies, though none of the parish’s zoning ordinances say anything about medical marijuana pharmacies.
Records indicate Pecantte told St. John officials how Terrebonne and St. Mary parishes classified his business as a pharmacy for land use purposes and made no distinctions regarding the type of medicine it sold.
According to their emails, parish zoning officials took that information into consideration. Zoning Administrator Kristi Muller emailed Parish President Jaclyn Hotard to inform her that she spoke with an official from Terrebonne Parish who confirmed that they permitted Green Leaf as a retail pharmacy.
However, St. John officials noted a provision in their zoning ordinance: “All uses not specifically permitted or by reasonable implication permitted herein … are prohibited uses.”
In an email, Muller told Hotard that medical marijuana dispensaries are not listed as a permitted use in any zoning district in St. John Parish unless the parish classifies them simply as pharmacies.
By mid November, a parish contractor who reviewed Pecannte’s proposal indicated that medical marijuana pharmacies are not specifically permitted in any land use zoning districts and recommended that the proposal be presented to the public at an advertised meeting, according to an email. Parish administrators continued to debate the matter, and Muller wrote that she knows of no such procedure that would allow for a public review of the permit application, according to a Nov. 22 email to Hotard.
On Dec. 18, the parish invoiced Pecantte for a permit application fee of approximately $1,861, which he paid. In a phone interview, Pecantte said he believed the matter had been resolved at that point but was still waiting to receive the permit.
St. John Parish Planning and Zoning Director Connie Powell, who is also an attorney, emailed Hotard additional information, according to Pecantte’s lawsuit. Powell wrote that she confirmed that Jefferson Parish, St. Charles Parish and Kenner also classify medical marijuana pharmacies as regular pharmacies permitted for use in commercial zones.
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St. John still did not issue a permit to Pecantte.
“They told me that even though I had paid the permit fee, it did not mean they’d be issuing the permit,” Pecantte said. “That was the final straw.”
On Jan. 13, Pecantte filed a lawsuit in St. John’s 40th Judicial District Court. He is seeking damages of $300,000, alleging the delay has caused his business a loss of revenue.
Hotard said in an email to the Illuminator that she could not comment on pending litigation.
Parish zoning ordinances allow for variances or conditional use permits that could effectively waive other zoning requirements to accommodate Green Leaf. Parish officials could also update the law to clarify that medical marijuana pharmacies are allowed, but they have so far elected to fight the matter in court rather than make any of those accommodations, Pecantte said.
Kevin Caldwell, a medical marijuana advocate with the Marijuana Policy Project, criticized the actions of parish officials in a phone interview last week.
Citing data from the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy, Caldwell pointed out there are 1,587 registered medical marijuana patients in St. John Parish. The state maintains an official registry of medical marijuana patients in accordance with state law.
“Refusing to permit a pharmacy certainly seems to be mean-spirited or cruel to deny patients access to their medicine,” Caldwell said.
This is the first time he’s ever heard of a community refusing to permit a medical marijuana pharmacy, especially for a business owner who is trying to build on an empty tract of land, he said.
“They’re going to entail legal costs and agitate a business owner who’s trying to improve the economy of this area,” Caldwell said. “I believe that St. John the Baptist Parish is misguided in trying to make a point on this.”
An initial hearing for Pecantte’s lawsuit scheduled for mid-February was cancelled, and a new date has yet to be scheduled. Pecantte said his attorney is planning to conduct depositions later this month and request a court date for late May or June.
Editor’s note: Zoning Administrator Kristi Muller is not related to reporter Wes Muller.
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Response to Public Records Request.Omar Pecantte