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CASE SHOWS WHY AREAS WANT TO HALT MEDICAL POT DISPENSARIES

Anyone who wonders why communities in Livingston County are seeking to put a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries need look no further than the case evolving in Ingham County around the arrest of the owner of Green Leaf University Smokers Club. 

It's a complicated case that shows the difficulties the legal system is going to have sorting through the law voters put in place in November 2008 that legalizes the use of marijuana for medical purposes in Michigan. 

Meanwhile, communities such as the cities of Howell and Brighton, Brighton Township and Green Oak Township have taken up proposals to put moratoriums on the opening of smoke clubs and dispensaries until they can sort out what the appropriate rules would be for such facilities in the zoning ordinance. 

Pinckney recently became the fifth municipality in Livingston County to take up the issue.  Village officials say they are leaning toward a six-month moratorium on dispensaries.  They have not been receptive to model ordinances they've seen from other communities that just put a blanket ban on sales.  They say they are more likely to adopt wording like that used in other cities that treats dispensaries like home-based businesses. 

That's appropriate, because voters said in 2008 by a wide margin that patients whose doctors believe they may benefit from the use of medical marijuana should be able to possess and use the drug without fear of arrest.  The law enacted then specifically allows individuals who have registered with the state to grow up to 12 plants and possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana.  Caregivers can grow pot for a patient, but the limits still apply.  A caregiver can only have 12 plants or 2.5 ounces per patient they are supplying. 

The 2008 vote was not an overall move to legalize use of marijuana or permit its use for recreational purposes.  It really never addressed dispensaries or the opening of smoke clubs.  It was strictly to allow use of the drug by patients who need it to treat their particular malady. 

Out in Williamstown Township near Williamston, Fredrick Wayne Dagit opened the Green Leaf University Smokers Club, described as a dispensary and compassion club for patients.  In May, the club was raided.  Cops didn't seize any of the drugs at the club itself because the plants and marijuana found there appeared to be within the limits for caregivers growing for their patients. 

But at Dagit's home in Okemos, police say they found a great deal more pot, 150 pounds.  If true, that would far exceed the limits set in the 2008 law.  Dagit's defense attorney is arguing that marijuana was sold to Dagit by an informant working with the police, so he says this case is one of entrapment.  Nonetheless, last week, an Ingham County judge ordered Dagit to stand trial on four felony drug counts. 

Such a case ought to be enough to make community leaders nervous about allowing such operations in town.  They need to balance the legitimate needs of patients to access marijuana to get access without opening the door wholesale to recreational pot clubs.  It's a difficult issue. 

The problem was the result of a poorly crafted initiative legislative proposal being put on the ballot in the first place.  It all would have been unnecessary if the state Legislature had crafted a compassionate bill that provided a well-regulated way for the sick to access marijuana for treatment.