Pubdate: Fri, 13 Aug 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: Charles Crumm, For the Daily Tribune
Referenced: The Oakland County legal department press release and 
link to the 63 page research document 
http://www.oakgov.com/about/news/2010/pr_10_79.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Michigan+medical+marijuana
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)

COUNTY OFFERS HELP ON MARIJUANA QUESTIONS

The Oakland County legal department is offering research on medical 
marijuana ordinances to local communities struggling how - or if - to 
regulate medical marijuana.

The county's office of corporation counsel was scheduled to make its 
63-page research document available to local communities Thursday, 
said Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.

"Some of the communities don't know which way to go so we've sent 
them a menu to pick from," Patterson said. "There's a lot of 
consternation at the local level about medical marijuana dispensary 
clinics popping up.

"So we did a quick research project of how other states and 
communities dealt with regulating or banning it," he said. "We just 
gave them what we thought were model statutes. We're just trying to 
help the locals respond to what portends to be a proliferation of 
marijuana shops around the country."

Communities have three options, the county has concluded.

One is to adopt a moratorium to study the issue, an approach adopted 
by Auburn Hills, Bloomfield Township, Royal Oak and Southfield.

A second is to regulate medical marijuana through local zoning 
ordinances and permits.

That's an approach that has been taken in Ferndale, where medical 
marijuana can only be dispensed by court order, and Huntington Woods, 
as well as in Roseville in Macomb County and Garden City in Wayne County.

The third is to attempt to ban medical marijuana to the extent 
possible, an approach taken in Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, which 
have banned anything that violates federal law.

Voters adopted a medical marijuana amendment in Michigan two years 
ago, but marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Patterson favors a ban, although he says it's up to each community to 
choose their own approach.

State voters, he said, approved medical marijuana two years ago under 
the guise of easing suffering. Now, dispensary businesses are touting 
the tax revenues of their businesses to local communities.

"That's why I think it's a fraud," he said.

Most recently, he objected to a marijuana dispensary event to be held 
at the Silverdome in Pontiac.

"The camel is putting its nose under the tent," he said. "Pretty soon 
we won't be able to drive down I-75 because of the smoke." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake