BETHANY BEACH, Del. -- Bethany Beach is the latest Delaware beach community to ban marijuana-related business in town.
The Town Council officially voted to enact the ban on Friday, August 18th.
In July, Mayor Rosemary Hardiman introduced the ordinance that would ban the retail sale, growth, testing, and cultivation of marijuana in town. It was the council's first reading of the ordinance.
There wasn't much discussion among the council last month, but Mayor Hardiman says she is in full support of the ordinance.
"Alcohol wasn't approved in Bethany Beach until not that many years ago, and this is a family town and I think people want to keep it that way," says Hardiman.
Mango's restaurant co-owner Alex Heidenberger says protecting the town's family-oriented reputation is of utmost importance and allowing marijuana in town wouldn't support it.
"You can let your kid out the door at 9 a.m. and not worry about them until after dinner and they're going to be fine," says Heidenberger. "Protecting that should be the end all be all in the conversation. It just takes one bad accident for it to scar our reputation here."
However, some visitors think allowing the drug to be grown or sold in town wouldn't have a negative impact on the community.
"I think people just need to be educated on it," says vacationer Maia Dreishpoon. "I think people don't know much about it or have these really bad implications. I've personally never done any other drugs, so it's been fine for me. It just depends on where you're from and what you know about it, but there's definitely a lot of stigma."
Mayor Hardiman and the council were accepting feedback from the community on whether or not they'd like to see this ban go into effect.