Pubdate: Mon, 7 Feb 2011 Source: Detroit Free Press (MI) Copyright: 2011 Detroit Free Press Contact: http://www.freep.com/article/99999999/opinion04/50926009 Website: http://www.freep.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125 Author: Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press Staff Writer Referenced: Michigan Medical Marijuana Act http://drugsense.org/url/8mvr7sW8 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Royal+Oak+City Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Livonia Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Bloomfield+Hills Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Birmingham Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Holland+Township Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Bill+Schuette METRO DETROIT COMMUNITIES SUED OVER MEDICAL POT Community officials across the region have spent countless hours in the last year debating how to regulate medical marijuana. Now, some are spending legal fees defending lawsuits. Royal Oak, whose ban on growing medical marijuana starts today, was sued last week, and another lawsuit is expected to be filed against the city this week. Also sued recently by medical-marijuana patients in metro Detroit were Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Bloomfield Township, Livonia and Lyon Township. "This is going to keep happening, and we're going to spend legal fees while we're laying off police officers," Royal Oak City Commissioner Jim Rasor said. Rasor said the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act "is perfectly clear" in establishing Michiganders' rights to use, grow and distribute medical marijuana. But he was in the minority of the 4-3 vote on the city's ordinance change, passed last month, to ban growing medical marijuana in Royal Oak. After dozens of citizens signed a petition asking for a complete ban on the drug, city commissioners sided with allowing its use but banning its cultivation, saying that the state law voters passed in 2008 was vague and could lead to drug dealing in the city. Michigan's new attorney general, Bill Schuette, said through a spokesman last week that he agreed. "The law is an absolute disaster," Schuette spokesman John Selleck said. "It has created the No. 1 growth industry in Michigan, but these are not the kind of jobs we need. Our attorneys are looking at the issue right now to determine the best ways the law could be clarified." It's too soon to say when the attorney general might issue an opinion on medical marijuana, he said. Such an opinion would not be binding on the courts, but it would help guide community leaders on the issue, Royal Oak City Attorney Dave Gillam said. Gillam said he and the city's planning director hope to resolve a mushrooming legal quandary with their ordinance change: whether residents who are state-approved patients can continue to grow the drug in their homes and be grandfathered in to the new city zoning amendment, if they've grown the drug before, Gillam said. Royal Oak officials admitted that they failed to anticipate the problem of grandfathering existing growers, who are guaranteed confidentiality by the state Medical Marijuana Act, Grosse Pointe attorney Paul Tylenda said. He represents Steven Greene, a resident of Lyon Township, who filed a lawsuit last month against the community to challenge its total ban on medical marijuana use, Tylenda said. [sidebar] COURT CASES INVOLVING MEDICAL MARIJUANA These communities have been sued over ordinances restricting medical marijuana: Bloomfield Township -- Sued last year in Oakland County Circuit Court by two anonymous residents who said the city's requirement that state-approved patients register with the police department violated privacy provisions in the state law that allows medical marijuana. Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia -- Sued in December in Wayne County Circuit Court by a Birmingham couple in their 60s, who said the communities' ordinances amounted to bans on medical marijuana. The couple said they want to use marijuana in their home, take it to a private club in Bloomfield Hills to control the wife's symptoms during long social events, and grow it in a warehouse they own in Livonia. Lawyers from the Detroit-based Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union represent them. Lyon Township -- Sued last month in Oakland County Circuit Court by a resident who received a notice from the township Dec. 20, saying he had 30 days to destroy marijuana plants inside his mobile home. The lawsuit said he is HIV positive and uses marijuana to counteract nausea caused by his medications. Royal Oak -- Sued Thursday in Oakland County Circuit Court by a resident who said he suffers from cancer and back ailments. His lawsuit said Royal Oak's ban on growing medical marijuana and other restrictions conflict with the state law that allows medical marijuana. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake