This article by Kayla Beard appeared in The Athens News, January 10, 2018.

Athens City Council members agreed Monday evening to codify into city law two successful citizen initiatives, one for de-penalization of marijuana in the city and the other banning fracking and other oil and gas related activities in city limits.

Council spent the first 40 minutes of Monday’s committee meetings hearing citizen comments regarding the codification of two citizen initiative petitions that have yet to be written into the official city code.

City voters overwhelmingly approved the marijuana de-penalization initiative in November, and passed the anti-fracking Community Bill of Rights and Water Protection initiative in 2014 by a heavy margin. With no proposals for drilling activities in the city since then, the Bill of Rights has not had any reason for enforcement. More…