Decatur, AL Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

Decatur handles medical cannabis through one short article, Article IX of Chapter 14, adopted by the Decatur City Council as Ord. No. 22-4544A on December 6, 2022. Subsection (a) opts the city in rather than out: the council authorizes the operation of medical cannabis dispensing sites by dispensary licensees and integrated facility licensees within the corporate limits of the City of Decatur. That permission is conditional. It runs subject to Act 21-450 of the Alabama Legislature, the rules promulgated under that act, and applicable city laws, resolutions and ordinances, as those are amended at any time and from time to time. A state license therefore does not by itself settle where a site can open inside the city.

The one flat zoning line in the article is subsection (f). No medical cannabis dispensing site can be located within the boundaries of any R-4 (multi-family) residential zoning district. Subsection (e) treats R-4 differently from every other residential district: the 500-foot distance rule from residential zoning district boundaries carves R-4 out, because R-4 land is closed to dispensing sites entirely. Subsection (d) adds a separate 1,000-foot separation from the boundaries of any church, school, day care or child care facility. Those distances are covered on the Decatur buffer-zones page.

Two administrative provisions finish the article. Subsection (b) directs the city clerk-treasurer or her designee to forward a copy of the article to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission not more than seven calendar days after adoption. Subsection (c) declares every provision severable, so a court judgment striking one clause leaves the others in force. The article does not name a permit office, fee schedule or hearing process of its own. It works by limiting where a site can sit, and everything else is left to the state act and the rest of the Code of Decatur, Alabama.