Pubdate: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 Source: Clio Messenger, The (MI) Contact: 2009 thecommunitynewspapers Website: http://www.mlive.com/clio/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5001 Author: Jared Field Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) CLIO CITY ATTORNEY, OTIS STOUT, PROPOSES MEDICAL POT-STOPPING ORDINANCE CLIO, Michigan -- Medical marijuana users may be officially smoked out of the city of Clio in the coming weeks. Otis Stout, Clio city attorney, proposed a new ordinance at the meeting of the Clio Commission on Monday night aimed at preventing medical marijuana dispensaries from taking root in the city. Stout recommended that the Clio Commission forward the proposed ordinance to the Planning Commission to decide whether a new ordinance, similar to the one authored to keep sexually-oriented businesses out of downtown Clio five years ago, should be codified. Stout suggested that the commission address the city code's lack of general licensing requirements for businesses. If adopted, the first licensing standard in the code would describe an "unlawful business" as one that is illegal under the Clio Code of Ordinances, the laws of the state of Michigan or the laws of the United States of America. Such a licensing standard would give the city the ability to effectively zone out medical marijuana dispensaries that will, by most accounts, crop up in Michigan after April 4, the day when the state of Michigan begins registering qualifying patients to use the drug legally. The use of medical marijuana is now legal in Michigan, but the new law is not congruent with the federal statutes banning the use of the drug.