Pubdate: Wed, 21 Apr 2010
Source: Daily Tribune, The (Royal Oak, MI)
Copyright: 2010 The Daily Tribune
Contact:  http://www.dailytribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1579
Author: Catherine Kavanaugh
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Dispensaries

MARIJUANA CLINICS ON HOLD

Royal Oak passes 180-day moratorium; 20 inquiries to date.

ROYAL OAK -- Elected officials imposed a 180-day  moratorium on 
medical marijuana clinics as they to wait  and see how the state and 
other cities handle issues  related to registered caregivers who are 
growing the  plant for qualified patients.

The City Commission needs to "take a breather," as one  member put 
it, from deciding between a zoning amendment  to allow clinics in 
business districts and a police  recommendation to ban the facilities.

Instead, their attention will be on the $16 million  shortfall in the 
2010-12 budget.

"Royal Oak is on the cutting edge of a lot of issues  but we don't 
need to be on every issue," City  Commissioner Chuck Semchena said. 
"We need to move  forward cautiously."

Planning Director Tim Thwing said his office has  received 20 
inquiries this year from people interested  in opening clinics on 
Woodward Avenue and part of  Coolidge Highway. However, that doesn't 
mean 20  operators are ready to open shop. Some of the callers  could 
be part of one business consortium, he added.

One of the interested parties has five medical  marijuana 
dispensaries in Colorado, according to  commercial real estate broker 
Ryan Richmond. He said  his client is interested in an empty 
storefront on Woodward.

"I have a sincere group with a solid plan to make  positive change in 
this community," Richmond said.

The City Hall staff recommended a 90-day moratorium and  two 
neighboring communities, Bloomfield Hills and  Bloomfield Township, 
adopted 120-day moratoriums.  However, the commission said 180 days 
is reasonable as  they work to pass a balanced budget by July 1. 
About 70 municipal workers could lose their jobs.

"We know we'll have layoffs; we know we will have less  police," 
Semchena said, calling the moratorium a  "pause" that will let Royal 
Oak "have a couple months  of a reduced police force under our belts."

The moratorium passed 6-1 with City Commissioner Jim  Rasor 
dissenting. He wanted to amend the 180-day ban to  require the Royal 
Oak Police Department to compile  information on the interested 
clinic operators, where  they want to offer the service, and whether 
fees could  be charged if they cause problems that turn into police  matters.

"I don't want the inertia to pass us by," Rasor said.

His suggestion didn't get any support from other  commissioners.

"Why don't we legalize prostitution because we would  get a lot of 
revenue from that?" City Commissioner  Terry Drinkwine asked.

Drinkwine said he supported legalizing medical  marijuana with 72 
percent of Royal Oak voters in  November 2008 as a compassionate 
alternative for  patients with cancer and multiple sclerosis to cope 
with pain and loss of appetite. However, he joined  critics of the 
vaguely written state ballot proposal,  which doesn't set regulations 
for clinics or  dispensaries or the potency of the medical marijuana.

"I voted for it but it needs to happen in a logical  way," Drinkwine said.

The state law passed by 63 percent of Michigan voters  says qualified 
patients can grow up to 12 plants for  themselves or get medical 
marijuana from a caregiver  allowed to grow up to 12 plants each for 
up to five  patients.

Royal Oak was moving toward regulating caregivers by  changing the 
local zoning law to limit them to general  business districts if they 
receive a special land use  permit from the Plan Commission. In 
March, the planning  panel recommended the City Commission adopt the change.

Mayor Jim Ellison was ready to act on the zoning change  Monday but 
he supported the moratorium for his  colleagues who want to move slower.

"Our goal should be to implement this as best we can,"  Ellison said 
of the state law.

Police Chief Christopher Jahnke is urging Royal Oak  officials to go 
the way of Livonia and change the  city's ordinance to prohibit 
businesses in violation of  federal law. Medical marijuana clinics 
then would be  banned because federal law prohibits possession and 
delivery of marijuana.

Semchena, a former prosecutor, shares police concerns  about the 
possibility of increased crime and surplus  medical marijuana being 
distributed illegally.

"This is a gateway drug and the quantity of marijuana  that can be 
grown by one caregiver is so enormously  large it can't be consumed 
by five patients," Semchena  said. "I don't know where all these 
drugs will go if  they don't end up in the hands of kids."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom