Michigan - Three weeks after 30 protesters from across the state crashed Saginaw City Hall's efforts to impose a six-month freeze on medical marijuana use, growth and distribution, the pressure appears to have swayed government leaders to reconsider the move.
Mayor Greg Branch said the City Council likely will drop its efforts for the temporary moratorium and instead move ahead quickly on adjusting zoning language to fit state law legalizing the drug for medical purposes.
"It's taking way more energy and causing a lot more angst than it's worth in the grand scheme of things," Branch said.
"A lot of that is because nobody outside of City Hall understands exactly what the moratorium was intended to do. They've built it into this big giant monster that's going to take away their rights under state law, but it's just a little zoning law."
The council on Dec. 21 postponed a moratorium vote after 30 medical marijuana advocates – from as far away as Detroit and Grand Rapids – packed the council chambers to voice concern that the city was attempting to supersede state law. A main complaint was that the freeze would make it illegal for a person to register as a medical marijuana patient during the six-month period.
Leaders said the intent was to stop business prospectors from capitalizing on Saginaw's lack of medical marijuana zoning while planners rewrote the ordinance. City Attorney Thomas H. Fancher agreed to recast the moratorium's legal language to curb advocates' fears.
Moving on
As of Friday, a moratorium vote did not appear on the council's agenda for its 6:30 p.m. Monday meeting at City Hall, 1315 S. Washington.
Branch said officials, including City Manager Darnell Earley, agreed planners instead can outpace business capitalists by finishing up the new zoning language in four to six weeks rather than the six-month period the moratorium would have allowed. The mayor said he expects some protesters will attend Monday's meeting. He hopes, now with a moratorium likely off the table, medical marijuana champions will understand the city's next aim.
At least two opponents who spoke against the moratorium say they're satisfied.
Gregory R. Switala, secretary of the Tri-City Compassion Club, a Great Lakes Bay Region medical marijuana advocacy group, spoke out at the December session.
"By all indications, at this point, yeah, I'm encouraged," Switala said. "Our biggest concern was that the patients would have been deprived of cultivation and use."
Switala said he was less worried with City Hall's efforts to adjust its zoning.
"It is the city's prerogative and responsibility to zone for business purposes," he said, adding, "although I don't see there's any particular reason for them to discriminate against businesses that are engaged in marijuana."
Fancher has likened the zoning adjustments to a government's right to regulate where developers can establish commercial properties such as fast food restaurants.
"It's basically to say, 'Where do you want to put this?' " he said in December. "It doesn't mean eating a hamburger is illegal."
ACLU on alert
Greg Schmid, a Saginaw layer and longtime City Hall opponent, said side-stepping the moratorium is a move in the right direction, but he entirely trusting of the zoning effort.
"If they're planning on skipping the moratorium, that's pretty much the first bright move they've made since this process began," Schmid said. "We'll see whether they're going to be clever about (rewriting the zoning ordinance) and do this in a way that makes them less easy a target for a lawsuit."
Schmid said rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union are keeping a close eye on Saginaw to see if officials attempt to make the city exempt from the November 2008 statewide vote making medical marijuana legal.
The Saginaw lawyer said he fears city attorneys could "be sneaky" by writing an ordinance that favors federal law – which makes marijuana illegal – over the state statute.
"While that seems clever, it's sort of too clever by half," Schmid said. "If that's the best they come up with, I believe the ACLU will have its sights set on Saginaw."
Fancher has said the ordinance could include input from a citizen group that might include medical marijuana patients.
Now that the zoning process appears on the fast track, it's unclear if the city will seek a citizen's panel for advice. Fancher, out of the office for the week, was not available for comment.
"I would hope that we keep that," Branch said. "There will probably still be that process."
At the least, Branch said, public forums are required before any new laws are written into city ordinances.
"There will be opportunities for citizen input at some point," he said.
News Hawk- Weedpipe 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: MLive.com
Author: Justin L. Engel | The Saginaw News
Contact: MLive.com
Copyright: 2009 Michigan Live LLC
Website:Saginaw likely to nix medical marijuana freeze
Mayor Greg Branch said the City Council likely will drop its efforts for the temporary moratorium and instead move ahead quickly on adjusting zoning language to fit state law legalizing the drug for medical purposes.
"It's taking way more energy and causing a lot more angst than it's worth in the grand scheme of things," Branch said.
"A lot of that is because nobody outside of City Hall understands exactly what the moratorium was intended to do. They've built it into this big giant monster that's going to take away their rights under state law, but it's just a little zoning law."
The council on Dec. 21 postponed a moratorium vote after 30 medical marijuana advocates – from as far away as Detroit and Grand Rapids – packed the council chambers to voice concern that the city was attempting to supersede state law. A main complaint was that the freeze would make it illegal for a person to register as a medical marijuana patient during the six-month period.
Leaders said the intent was to stop business prospectors from capitalizing on Saginaw's lack of medical marijuana zoning while planners rewrote the ordinance. City Attorney Thomas H. Fancher agreed to recast the moratorium's legal language to curb advocates' fears.
Moving on
As of Friday, a moratorium vote did not appear on the council's agenda for its 6:30 p.m. Monday meeting at City Hall, 1315 S. Washington.
Branch said officials, including City Manager Darnell Earley, agreed planners instead can outpace business capitalists by finishing up the new zoning language in four to six weeks rather than the six-month period the moratorium would have allowed. The mayor said he expects some protesters will attend Monday's meeting. He hopes, now with a moratorium likely off the table, medical marijuana champions will understand the city's next aim.
At least two opponents who spoke against the moratorium say they're satisfied.
Gregory R. Switala, secretary of the Tri-City Compassion Club, a Great Lakes Bay Region medical marijuana advocacy group, spoke out at the December session.
"By all indications, at this point, yeah, I'm encouraged," Switala said. "Our biggest concern was that the patients would have been deprived of cultivation and use."
Switala said he was less worried with City Hall's efforts to adjust its zoning.
"It is the city's prerogative and responsibility to zone for business purposes," he said, adding, "although I don't see there's any particular reason for them to discriminate against businesses that are engaged in marijuana."
Fancher has likened the zoning adjustments to a government's right to regulate where developers can establish commercial properties such as fast food restaurants.
"It's basically to say, 'Where do you want to put this?' " he said in December. "It doesn't mean eating a hamburger is illegal."
ACLU on alert
Greg Schmid, a Saginaw layer and longtime City Hall opponent, said side-stepping the moratorium is a move in the right direction, but he entirely trusting of the zoning effort.
"If they're planning on skipping the moratorium, that's pretty much the first bright move they've made since this process began," Schmid said. "We'll see whether they're going to be clever about (rewriting the zoning ordinance) and do this in a way that makes them less easy a target for a lawsuit."
Schmid said rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union are keeping a close eye on Saginaw to see if officials attempt to make the city exempt from the November 2008 statewide vote making medical marijuana legal.
The Saginaw lawyer said he fears city attorneys could "be sneaky" by writing an ordinance that favors federal law – which makes marijuana illegal – over the state statute.
"While that seems clever, it's sort of too clever by half," Schmid said. "If that's the best they come up with, I believe the ACLU will have its sights set on Saginaw."
Fancher has said the ordinance could include input from a citizen group that might include medical marijuana patients.
Now that the zoning process appears on the fast track, it's unclear if the city will seek a citizen's panel for advice. Fancher, out of the office for the week, was not available for comment.
"I would hope that we keep that," Branch said. "There will probably still be that process."
At the least, Branch said, public forums are required before any new laws are written into city ordinances.
"There will be opportunities for citizen input at some point," he said.
News Hawk- Weedpipe 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: MLive.com
Author: Justin L. Engel | The Saginaw News
Contact: MLive.com
Copyright: 2009 Michigan Live LLC
Website:Saginaw likely to nix medical marijuana freeze