The city of Battle Creek nipped local medical marijuana operations in the bud last week when commissioners voted to institute a six-month freeze on any new businesses associated with the medicinal use of the plant.
City leaders now have until January to finalize their take on a new area of worry for all Michigan cities: the lawful distribution of pot.
Communities have three options when deciding how to handle medical marijuana establishments, said Andria Ditschman, a shareholder and vice president with the Hubbard Law Firm in Lansing, which has worked with local governments on medical marijuana regulations.
Ditschman said municipalities can do nothing and rely on their existing ordinances, they can ban medical marijuana all together like the city of Livonia did or they can take Ditschman's preferred approach and impose some regulations.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Among the issues local officials face is deciding where medical marijuana businesses should be allowed to open. Is any commercial area OK? What about near a school or day care center?
And if the people licensed to grow medical marijuana, known as caregivers, grow the plants in their homes, what can a city do to keep possible traffic problems or crime at bay?
"The state act doesn't talk about local regulations at all," Ditschman said. "How do you keep residential areas safe and at the same time not infringe on the new law and the rights of people?"
One option is to keep medical marijuana businesses out of the city, like Livonia did last year when officials passed an ordinance outlawing any business not legal under federal law, which effectively precludes any medical marijuana establishment.
A more common response is to pass regulations that control medical marijuana through zoning or licensing requirements.
The city of Lansing is considering two ordinances, one for home-based operations and another for so-called compassionate care centers. Neither type of distribution location would be allowed to operate within 1,000 feet of schools, colleges, playgrounds and other locations where children gather.
Grand Rapids allows for only home-based businesses and has banned any kind of commercial marijuana operation. The city of Kalamazoo is looking at a similar ordinance.
LOOKING FOR LOOPHOLES
A city ordinance may outlaw commercial dispensaries, but Ditschman said determined and creative sellers can usually find ways around it.
"What we find is that a lot of the ordinances going into effect are not carefully drafted," she said. "You really have to know what all the actors are doing out there in order to write an ordinance like this."
She said many communities are ignoring the residential issues because it's hard to address them without stepping on the rights set out in Michigan's Medical Marijuana Act, which went into effect in April 2009.
The law says caregivers can provide marijuana for up to five patients and grow up to 12 plants for each patient.
That could make it difficult for cities to enact their own limits on the number of plants at a given location.
More reasonable and less prone to a court challenge, Ditschman said, are limits on transactions or traffic, which can reduce some of the negative aspects of having the operations located in residential areas.
A city also could try to limit the number of caregivers in one location, but that can pose a problem because patients can be their own caregivers, she said.
Any new zoning ordinance in Battle Creek would not affect existing businesses like B.C. Hydro, which opened in January near 20th Street and Territorial Road.
Limit the restrictions
Joe Cain, a Bedford Township resident and chief operating officer of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, said he supported keeping medical marijuana businesses away from schools, but he didn't want to see restrictions beyond that.
"I think if you start interpreting it as a moral issue, then you go way off," he said. "The real moral issue here is that we're dealing with sick people, with dying people."
He said the businesses try and stay discrete since only people licensed to handle the drug need to know about them, and he said violent crime at medical marijuana places hasn't been a problem.
"7-Elevens are robbed every day," he said.
The end result of any decision, he said, should be that patients are able to get help.
EXERCISE CAUTION
Cain said Branch County was considering an ordinance that would have made it almost impossible for a medical marijuana business to operate anywhere in the county, but leaders there ultimately decided to do nothing and defer to state law.
"I think we just have to be careful," Cain said. "What I've seen so far from the Battle Creek council members is that they're very reasonable."
A zoning ordinance will have to pass through the Battle Creek Planning Commission before getting a final OK from the City Commission.
City Attorney Eileen Wicklund said the city will set up meetings with medical marijuana proponents in the new few weeks to gather suggestions and solicit ideas from city staff.
"We're certainly going to look at everything," she said, "because you never know what good ideas are out there."
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Battle Creek Enquirer
Author: Barrett Newkirk
Copyright: 2010 Battle Creek Enquirer
City leaders now have until January to finalize their take on a new area of worry for all Michigan cities: the lawful distribution of pot.
Communities have three options when deciding how to handle medical marijuana establishments, said Andria Ditschman, a shareholder and vice president with the Hubbard Law Firm in Lansing, which has worked with local governments on medical marijuana regulations.
Ditschman said municipalities can do nothing and rely on their existing ordinances, they can ban medical marijuana all together like the city of Livonia did or they can take Ditschman's preferred approach and impose some regulations.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Among the issues local officials face is deciding where medical marijuana businesses should be allowed to open. Is any commercial area OK? What about near a school or day care center?
And if the people licensed to grow medical marijuana, known as caregivers, grow the plants in their homes, what can a city do to keep possible traffic problems or crime at bay?
"The state act doesn't talk about local regulations at all," Ditschman said. "How do you keep residential areas safe and at the same time not infringe on the new law and the rights of people?"
One option is to keep medical marijuana businesses out of the city, like Livonia did last year when officials passed an ordinance outlawing any business not legal under federal law, which effectively precludes any medical marijuana establishment.
A more common response is to pass regulations that control medical marijuana through zoning or licensing requirements.
The city of Lansing is considering two ordinances, one for home-based operations and another for so-called compassionate care centers. Neither type of distribution location would be allowed to operate within 1,000 feet of schools, colleges, playgrounds and other locations where children gather.
Grand Rapids allows for only home-based businesses and has banned any kind of commercial marijuana operation. The city of Kalamazoo is looking at a similar ordinance.
LOOKING FOR LOOPHOLES
A city ordinance may outlaw commercial dispensaries, but Ditschman said determined and creative sellers can usually find ways around it.
"What we find is that a lot of the ordinances going into effect are not carefully drafted," she said. "You really have to know what all the actors are doing out there in order to write an ordinance like this."
She said many communities are ignoring the residential issues because it's hard to address them without stepping on the rights set out in Michigan's Medical Marijuana Act, which went into effect in April 2009.
The law says caregivers can provide marijuana for up to five patients and grow up to 12 plants for each patient.
That could make it difficult for cities to enact their own limits on the number of plants at a given location.
More reasonable and less prone to a court challenge, Ditschman said, are limits on transactions or traffic, which can reduce some of the negative aspects of having the operations located in residential areas.
A city also could try to limit the number of caregivers in one location, but that can pose a problem because patients can be their own caregivers, she said.
Any new zoning ordinance in Battle Creek would not affect existing businesses like B.C. Hydro, which opened in January near 20th Street and Territorial Road.
Limit the restrictions
Joe Cain, a Bedford Township resident and chief operating officer of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, said he supported keeping medical marijuana businesses away from schools, but he didn't want to see restrictions beyond that.
"I think if you start interpreting it as a moral issue, then you go way off," he said. "The real moral issue here is that we're dealing with sick people, with dying people."
He said the businesses try and stay discrete since only people licensed to handle the drug need to know about them, and he said violent crime at medical marijuana places hasn't been a problem.
"7-Elevens are robbed every day," he said.
The end result of any decision, he said, should be that patients are able to get help.
EXERCISE CAUTION
Cain said Branch County was considering an ordinance that would have made it almost impossible for a medical marijuana business to operate anywhere in the county, but leaders there ultimately decided to do nothing and defer to state law.
"I think we just have to be careful," Cain said. "What I've seen so far from the Battle Creek council members is that they're very reasonable."
A zoning ordinance will have to pass through the Battle Creek Planning Commission before getting a final OK from the City Commission.
City Attorney Eileen Wicklund said the city will set up meetings with medical marijuana proponents in the new few weeks to gather suggestions and solicit ideas from city staff.
"We're certainly going to look at everything," she said, "because you never know what good ideas are out there."
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Battle Creek Enquirer
Author: Barrett Newkirk
Copyright: 2010 Battle Creek Enquirer
