Eau Claire plans for recreational pot shop hits road blocks

EAU CLAIRE, Mich.-- The village of Eau Claire is no stranger to Marijuana.

The village opted in for medical use last year and will soon be home to a growing facility, a future dispensary and there’s already a hemp farm, but next on the agenda? Recreational.

“Medical is definitely here. With that, there’s no sense in recreational not as well," said Marijuana caregiver, Rick Anstiss.

Monday night, the village council voted to hold off on opting in for recreational marijuana, until there is a public hearing on the issue.

“The public can kind of have their input and help the council come to a better conclusion to which way they want to go," said Anstiss.

Just last year, licensed medical marijuana caregiver, Rick Anstiss helped organize the Hemp and Harvest festival that brought more than 2,000 interested people to Eau Claire.

Anstiss believes it shouldn’t end there, and opening up a one-stop-shop to buy and use recreational pot in a safe setting offering a juice bar, massages and other amenities would put the village, less than a mile long, on the map.

"Take up old and turn it into something new and exciting. If you look at Bangor, its an old town and its done many things with cannabis and some of those older buildings have been revitalized because of that," said Anstiss.

ABC 57 spoke to some people in this small rural community about how they feel about a legal smoking site right on Main Street.

“I think tax wise and otherwise, recreational use used responsibly, i don’t see a problem with that," said Troy Cameron.

“It would be something they would benefit from," said Stephan Teale.

“I mean they let the hemp business into town. So if we keep building and expanding, I think eventually it’ll help the town out," said Chad Medline.

Eau Claire village council president, John Glassman, tells me the village is open to hearing them out.

“Recreational marijuana, we’re not opposed to it, we’re not for it. We want more information. We want the community to give us more information so the council can do their voting moving forward," said Glassman.

“It becomes problematic whether it conflicts with their jobs, their religious views or what someone thinks of them. For the most part I have a large following of ‘lets do this in Eau Claire," said Anstiss.

As of now, a date for the public hearing has not been set just yet.

Once the hearing has been held, the village board will revisit their decision to opt out.