ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - A unique situation took place in Des Peres and Olivette last week, where voters had the chance to stop the sales of recreational marijuana in their municipality.
Municipalities can ban marijuana dispensaries under the Missouri Constitution, but they can only be voted on during presidential elections years and to pass, it must receive at least 60% of the vote.
However, both measures fell short of the 60% needed to stop the sale of recreational marijuana in both municipalities. Had the measure passed in Des Peres, one dispensary, Root 66, would have been impacted.
"If it had gone the other way, I think we would've just had to shut down and move. We would've had no choice," said Hamid Hamrah, Owner of Root 66 Dispensary in Des Peres on 'Total Information A.M.'
Hamrah says for a dispensary like Root 66, you can't make enough money off of medicinal marijuana sales alone.
"It's like night and day, it's not even close," said Hamrah. "For medical, you would be talking maybe 20 people a day versus recreational where its hundreds of people a day."
Hamrah says he was a part of 11 public hearings in 18 months over this issue leading up to Election Day.
"The biggest concern out of those 11 public hearings over 18 months span I've heard was we were going to hand out marijuana and candy to kids at the park, people were going to smoking in the parking lot and crime was going to be up," said Hamrah. "(Opponents) really pressed on that to the city and that's how it became to the point where people were like 'we don't want them here.'"
Hamrah tells KMOX that security in a marijuana dispensary like Root 66 is significantly tighter compared to a liquor store.
"When you walk in (Root 66), it's very secure in there, you got bulletproof glass in the front and not to scare people, but its really more for their safety," said Hamrah. "You have to give an I.D., we run it through an I.D. scanner, verify who you are and we make sure you have the age before you walk in."
"There's a huge difference between that and a liquor store, where so many kids in that general area over the years can just walk in, have fake ID and walk out of there."
Des Peres Mayor Mark Becker told KMOX in an interview in October that since Root 66 opened in August 2023, Des Peres Department of Public Safety has responded to three call for service at Root 66 and all three ended up being false alarms triggered by Root 66's security system.
"No crimes have been reported in the 12 months since Root 66 commenced operations," said Becker at the time.
Hamrah says that while he knows there's always a chance this issue will come back up in 2028, but for right now, the dispensary simply wants to "continue to be good citizens of Des Peres and be a good example to the community."
"We want to show everyone in Des Peres how well we run our store so this doesn't come up again," said Hamrah.
"We just want to be treated like all the other businesses in Des Peres. We keep our store clean, we keep it safe. It's well lit outside and at the end of the day, we would love for them to come and try a product of ours that can benefit them."