Pubdate: Thu, 7 May 2009
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Copyright: 2009 The Detroit News
Contact:  http://detnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/126
Author: Jennifer Chambers, The Detroit News
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA SHOPS CONSIDERED

Royal Oak Weighs Letting Growers Set Up in Business District

Royal Oak -- Woodward Avenue has been a magnet for car enthusiasts 
and shoppers for decades, but the boulevard soon may earn a new 
reputation as Michigan's first pot zone.

Royal Oak's leaders are contemplating a zoning ordinance that would 
require medical marijuana growers to set up shop in the city's 
general business district, which encompasses the retail and 
commercial business strip along the byway.

The proposal, to be discussed Tuesday by the city's Plan Commission, 
targets growers who are state registered caregivers of medical 
marijuana patients. It would not apply to qualified patients who are 
physician-certified to grow the drug.

City planner Doug Hedges said leaders had concerns about illegal 
activity sprouting up at private residences where marijuana was being grown.

"The act does allow a caregiver to be compensated for services so 
they are a potential commercial activity," Hedges said. "We thought 
it best to treat them as a business. We don't allow home occupations 
in Royal Oak where a customer visits a home."

The Plan Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposal and 
make a recommendation to the City Commission.

State law allows caregivers to grow marijuana for up to five 
registered patients, which means caregivers may legally possess 2.5 
grams and 12 plants per patient for a total of 12.5 ounces and 60 
plants. Hedges said a single caregiver isn't likely to make a viable 
business out of five patients, so he expects caregivers to act as a 
consortium and possibly set up shop together in a storefront as a 
medical marijuana dispensary.

Chuck Semchena, a city commissioner and former anti-drug task force 
prosecutor for Oakland County, said: "The potency of the marijuana is 
so great and the number of harvests can be great, and the potential 
for that marijuana to end up somewhere else in the hands of someone 
with no authority to have it is great."

Diane Richards, owner of Rec Diving, a scuba gear outfitter, on 
Woodward, said she wants to know more about how such dispensaries 
would operate. "But if the choice is between having it at my next 
door neighbor's house or having it in a zoned business area where 
it's more controlled and they are contributing to the tax base, then 
it's business all the way," said Richards.             
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake