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HILLS' MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAND USE MORATORIUM IS EXTENDED

Farmington Hills City Councilwoman Cheryl Oliverio has a new perspective on the medical uses of marijuana.  Her 87-year-old father has pancreatic cancer.

"It is better than any pain pills.  It is frustrating to me when I see how ( positively ) it affects my father," Oliverio said.

The longtime councilwoman revealed her father's illness June 10 as the City Council again extended its moratorium on the land use and zoning issues that have accompanied the state's 2008 legalization of medical marijuana.

"People who can really benefit from medical marijuana can't get it," Oliverio said.  "This whole thing is just a bunch of crap."

Despite the years since legalization of medical marijuana, the state Legislature continues to tweak the law, while the Michigan Supreme Court accepted an appeal in the case of TerBeek vs.  City of Wyoming, a case that bears directly on medical marijuana-related zoning regulations, said Hills City Attorney Steve Joppich.

That decision could be some nine months to one year away, Joppich added.

And that's why the council continued the moratorium it originally established in 2010.  The moratorium has been extended to March 18, 2014.

The moratorium affects residents who want to grow medical marijuana in Farmington Hills.  "The law has not given us what we need," Joppich said.

The unresolved issue zeroes in how zoning ordinances, including where within the city land may be zoned to grow medical marijuana.

Oliverio asked if a licensed caregiver is allowed to grow medical marijuana in the patient's home.  "Technically there could be an issue on that," Joppich said.  "They would need to be a resident of the home."

Councilwoman Nancy Bates said medical marijuana should be handled as a medicine, available through a pharmacy.  "She ( Oliverio ) needs it now, not five years from now when these politicians get to it."