Zoning red tape is frustrating would-be cannabis entrepreneur William Bishop III (pictured).

Showing up during the public comment period of the Springfield city council’s Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday, Bishop said, “This business is union. It’s going to be built by union companies, construction companies. It’s going to create about forty union jobs for about six months,” Bishop said. “We’re going to use the minority trades. it’s going to create 25 Teamster jobs. We have entered into a (project labor agreement) with the local Teamsters; these are going to be nice paying jobs with benefits.”

Bishop’s comments set off a discussion around the horseshoe of the merits of legalized recreational cannabis.

Ald. Joe McMenamin reiterates the opinion he’s long voiced: it’s not worth it.

“I agree with when the NAACP came in here, and they said they were against recreational marijuana, and some of the Black ministers came in, and some of the medical community spoke up,” he said. “I think recreational marijuana – especially the new forms, the ‘gummy balls’ and that kind of thing – it really interferes with education with our young folks.”

McMenamin also said we can probably draw a line from there to the poor test scores the Lincoln Library director discussed the night before.