CITYWIDE MORATORIUM ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA WOULD STAND BETWEEN PATIENTS
AND THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE

Saginaw is blowing smoke over Michigan's new medical marijuana law.
Through the haze, we can sort of see what city leaders are after with
a proposed moratorium on medical marijuana-related businesses.

But before the City Council goes any further with this half-baked
notion, we urge the city's staff to zero in on exactly what it wants
to achieve.

As it was, on Dec. 21, 22 people from here and around the state spoke
out against the plan to prevent new patients from registering with
the state for medical marijuana and to stop new caregivers from
growing the stuff in the city. The ban would last for six months,
until the city can figure out zoning restrictions for medical
marijuana businesses.

Zoning medical marijuana?

Medical marijuana businesses?

No wonder Mayor Greg Branch said of the proposal that night: "I don't
think this one's fully cooked."

The council tabled the proposal until a Jan. 11 meeting.

Before then, all City Council members ought to examine Michigan's
Medical Marijuana Law carefully.

First and foremost, it allows patients who have paid their $100 and
registered with the state to grow up to 12 marijuana plants for their
own use -- in a locked, secured room or facility. How does the city
zone that kind of indoors, home gardening?

State law does allow registered caregivers to grow as many as 12
plants for each of a maximum of five patients, and collect
"reasonable compensation."

Yet, city attorney Thomas H. Fancher maintains that the city needs
the moratorium and subsequent zoning to crack down on
commercialization of medical marijuana.

Yes, it does appear that the state law might allow a small cottage
industry for marijuana growers supplying a very limited -- a maximum
of five -- clientele.

Using our fingers and toes, we count a maximum of 60 plants that one
caregiver could grow for less than a half dozen patients.

With the electrical draw of lights, ventilation and the humidity of
such an indoors operation, the city might have a solid argument in
favor of zoning these larger indoors gardens.

But that's our guess, not the city's argument.

Saginaw's original moratorium would have stopped anyone in the city
from becoming a medical marijuana patient for six months. Those who
already are registered patients and caregivers would be grandfathered
in and allowed to continue.

It isn't the city's place, though, to get between patients and a
state law that voters overwhelmingly approved in every one of
Michigan's 83 counties in 2008.

The people spoke, and said patients who doctors say might benefit
from medical marijuana should be allowed to grow and use it.

Rather than throw a lasso around that law and say "whoa!" across the
entire city for six months, City Council should step away from its
proposed moratorium and devote the time to modifying city codes to
accommodate the will of the people.

A small, one-patient basement garden, for example, might need an
upgrade in wiring, maybe bars on the windows and a vent to make it
safe against fires and secure from thieves.

Larger caregiver operations probably ought to be zoned to buildings
that can accommodate them.

But it's unreasonable to justify this proposed moratorium -- to keep
patients from the drug that state law says they can use -- with a
claim that the city needs to study zoning for shops selling growing
equipment or marijuana paraphernalia.

Existing laws already govern or prohibit the sale of most
marijuana-specific smoking supplies.

And what is the city going to do, clamp down on garden stores that
dabble in, say, hydroponics?

Leave the patients be -- both those who are registered and those who
might register in the next six months.

Then by all means study how the city can accommodate an overly vague
state law that legalizes some marijuana use, but leaves everyone
hanging on how they might get their hands on the drugs, or even its seeds.

The haze clinging to the medical marijuana law definitely needs to be cleared.

But Saginaw shouldn't add to the confusion with a plan that would
keep patients from the relief they seek.