Saginaw's City Council on Monday tabled a proposed six-month moratorium freezing medical marijuana production and use as leaders rework zoning laws for the drug.
"I don't think this one's fully cooked," Mayor Greg Branch said of the proposal.
The mayor asked City Hall Attorney Thomas H. Fancher to rework the moratorium language to make it clear the city, during the six months, would crack down on the commercialization of medical marijuana in the city rather than the use of it by patients.
The council will vote on a potentially revised version of the proposal at its 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 11, meeting at City Hall, 1315 S. Washington.
The proposal on Monday's table would not include residents or businesses with already established ties to medical marijuana, Fancher said. In other words, a grandfather clause excludes buyers and sellers already in business.
Fancher said that, technically speaking, a resident who registers to use — and, therefore, buy — medical marijuana during the six-month period would be violating the moratorium.
While Fancher said the city likely wouldn't crack down on users during the six-month freeze, Branch said he was "troubled" by some of the public's perception of the proposal. More than 20 people showed up at the meeting to speak against the measure.
"(Tabling the proposal) gives us an opportunity to make it clear what we're really talking about is the commercial use ... rather than the personal," Branch said. "I don't want to leave those (medical marijuana users) in limbo."
The attorney said, under a moratorium, there likely would be "a fairly small level of enforcement" by civil infraction only.
"It would be not by police, but by inspectors," Fancher said. "It would be similar to the kind of ticket you would give a business that had too many signs out in front of it. It would be by ticket, a non-criminal offense."
Fancher said he hopes the zoning changes that come after a moratorium would aid medical marijuana users and providers by creating communities friendly to the drug's growth and usage.
"We want businesses that are going to be developing around this to be in the right area so that they can create jobs and they won't create problems in neighborhoods where they shouldn't be," he said. "We're trying to do this the right way so that we don't look back a year from now and say, 'Boy, I'm glad we didn't do it the way X city did it because they're all messed up.'"
News Hawk- Weedpipe 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Michigan Live
Author: Justin L. Engel
Contact: MLive.com
Copyright: 2009 Michigan Live
Website:Saginaw council tables medical marijuana moratorium
"I don't think this one's fully cooked," Mayor Greg Branch said of the proposal.
The mayor asked City Hall Attorney Thomas H. Fancher to rework the moratorium language to make it clear the city, during the six months, would crack down on the commercialization of medical marijuana in the city rather than the use of it by patients.
The council will vote on a potentially revised version of the proposal at its 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 11, meeting at City Hall, 1315 S. Washington.
The proposal on Monday's table would not include residents or businesses with already established ties to medical marijuana, Fancher said. In other words, a grandfather clause excludes buyers and sellers already in business.
Fancher said that, technically speaking, a resident who registers to use — and, therefore, buy — medical marijuana during the six-month period would be violating the moratorium.
While Fancher said the city likely wouldn't crack down on users during the six-month freeze, Branch said he was "troubled" by some of the public's perception of the proposal. More than 20 people showed up at the meeting to speak against the measure.
"(Tabling the proposal) gives us an opportunity to make it clear what we're really talking about is the commercial use ... rather than the personal," Branch said. "I don't want to leave those (medical marijuana users) in limbo."
The attorney said, under a moratorium, there likely would be "a fairly small level of enforcement" by civil infraction only.
"It would be not by police, but by inspectors," Fancher said. "It would be similar to the kind of ticket you would give a business that had too many signs out in front of it. It would be by ticket, a non-criminal offense."
Fancher said he hopes the zoning changes that come after a moratorium would aid medical marijuana users and providers by creating communities friendly to the drug's growth and usage.
"We want businesses that are going to be developing around this to be in the right area so that they can create jobs and they won't create problems in neighborhoods where they shouldn't be," he said. "We're trying to do this the right way so that we don't look back a year from now and say, 'Boy, I'm glad we didn't do it the way X city did it because they're all messed up.'"
News Hawk- Weedpipe 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Michigan Live
Author: Justin L. Engel
Contact: MLive.com
Copyright: 2009 Michigan Live
Website:Saginaw council tables medical marijuana moratorium
