The Town of Essex is the second local municipality to opt-in for provincially licenced cannabis stores.
Councillors voted 7-0 in favour of having them at some point down the road. Several councillors pointed to a town survey that showed a lot of public support for hosting marijuana stores.
Councillor Steve Bjorkman said there's no reason to hide behind other communities.
"We need to blaze our own trail with this. It is a legal substance today. Today people are outside smoking marijuana," said Bjorkman.
Bjorkman said he believes legal pot shops won't kill the black market but feels they will hurt it.
"We know this isn't the silver bullet to getting rid of the black market but it is going to put control back into the communities," he said.
Bjorkman said opting-in will give the town a better voice about changes and more provincial funding later.
"If we're part of the process, when we do make our community plan, when we do have our programs setup, we'll have a better voice when we go to the provincial government because we're part of what's happening," Bjorkman added.
Kingsville also voted to opt-in, but before Monday night, Leamington was the other municipality that said yes to licenced pot shops. Windsor and Amherstburg will decide next Monday night. Windsor is the only municipality in the region that qualifies to host one of the first cannabis stores. Municipalities must be willing to host pot stores and have a population of over 50,000 to qualify for a provincial licence.
Lakeshore, Tecumseh and Lasalle have already voted to opt-out.
Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche was not at the Essex Council meeting Monday night.
