CLIO CITY ATTORNEY, OTIS STOUT, PROPOSES MEDICAL POT-STOPPING ORDINANCE

CLIO, Michigan -- Medical marijuana users may be officially smoked out of
the city of Clio in the coming weeks.

Otis Stout, Clio city attorney, proposed a new ordinance at the meeting of
the Clio Commission on Monday night aimed at preventing medical marijuana
dispensaries from taking root in the city.

Stout recommended that the Clio Commission forward the proposed ordinance
to the Planning Commission to decide whether a new ordinance, similar to
the one authored to keep sexually-oriented businesses out of downtown Clio
five years ago, should be codified.

Stout suggested that the commission address the city code's lack of
general licensing requirements for businesses.

If adopted, the first licensing standard in the code would describe an
"unlawful business" as one that is illegal under the Clio Code of
Ordinances, the laws of the state of Michigan or the laws of the United
States of America.

Such a licensing standard would give the city the ability to effectively
zone out medical marijuana dispensaries that will, by most accounts, crop
up in Michigan after April 4, the day when the state of Michigan begins
registering qualifying patients to use the drug legally.

The use of medical marijuana is now legal in Michigan, but the new law is
not congruent with the federal statutes banning the use of the drug.