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APPEALS COURT STRIKES DOWN MEDICAL MARIJUANA ORDINANCE

The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that cities cannot enact ordinances that ban the use of medical marijuana.

Livonia was one of the first Michigan communities to pass an ordinance in December 2009 that prohibits uses for enterprises or purposes that are contrary to federal, state or local laws or ordinances, While medical marijuana was never mentioned by name, the city's ordinance referenced federal law, which would include the federal Controlled Substances Act, which bans the use of marijuana.

The appellate court ruled that local governments could not use the federal prohibition on marijuana to ban it and that the local ordinance does not pre-empt state law.  Wyoming, Mich., resident John Ter Beek, a retired attorney and medical marijuana patient who suffers from diabetes and a neurological disorder that causes neuropathy and severe pain, filed suit against the city of Wyoming in 2010.  The American Civil Liberties Union joined the lawsuit.

"( The city of Wyoming's ) ordinance is void and unenforceable to the extent that it purports to sanction the medical use of marijuana in conformity with the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act," the court's judges, Joel Hoekstra, Douglas Shapiro and William Whitbeck, wrote in the ruling.

Livonia City Attorney Don Knapp disagreed with the ruling and believed the federal law should pre-empt the state law.  Knapp had not spoken to Mayor Jack Kirksey or the City Council yet on the ruling, but he hoped the city of Wyoming would appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.  He was uncertain whether that would happen.

"Based on this decision, we can't enforce this ordinance," Knapp said, but he quickly added that the Court of Appeals also ruled last year that businesses that facilitated patient-to-patient transfers of medical marijuana were found to be illegal.

"You will not see marijuana businesses cropping up because of the previous ruling," Knapp said.

The ACLU applauded the court's decision in favor of Ter Beek.

"In 2008, people across the state overwhelmingly voted to protect patients who use marijuana to treat their medical conditions from punishment and penalty," said Dan Korobkin, ACLU of Michigan staff attorney, in a prepared statement.  "Today's decision by the Michigan Court of Appeals rejects the misguided efforts of a few local officials to undo the results of that historic election.  Now that the law is clear, all cities should take notice and stop threatening to treat patients who have done nothing wrong like criminals."

Ter Beek said he tried narcotic-based drugs like Vicodin and OxyContin, but "nothing worked like medical marijuana."

"The fact is medical marijuana helps people; it's helped me," said Ter Beek.