MARIJUANA CLINICS ON HOLD

Royal Oak passes 180-day moratorium; 20 inquiries to date.

ROYAL OAK -- Elected officials imposed a 180-day moratorium on
medical marijuana clinics as they to wait and see how the state and
other cities handle issues related to registered caregivers who are
growing the plant for qualified patients.

The City Commission needs to "take a breather," as one member put
it, from deciding between a zoning amendment to allow clinics in
business districts and a police recommendation to ban the facilities.

Instead, their attention will be on the $16 million shortfall in the
2010-12 budget.

"Royal Oak is on the cutting edge of a lot of issues but we don't
need to be on every issue," City Commissioner Chuck Semchena said.
"We need to move forward cautiously."

Planning Director Tim Thwing said his office has received 20
inquiries this year from people interested in opening clinics on
Woodward Avenue and part of Coolidge Highway. However, that doesn't
mean 20 operators are ready to open shop. Some of the callers could
be part of one business consortium, he added.

One of the interested parties has five medical marijuana
dispensaries in Colorado, according to commercial real estate broker
Ryan Richmond. He said his client is interested in an empty
storefront on Woodward.

"I have a sincere group with a solid plan to make positive change in
this community," Richmond said.

The City Hall staff recommended a 90-day moratorium and two
neighboring communities, Bloomfield Hills and Bloomfield Township,
adopted 120-day moratoriums. However, the commission said 180 days
is reasonable as they work to pass a balanced budget by July 1.
About 70 municipal workers could lose their jobs.

"We know we'll have layoffs; we know we will have less police,"
Semchena said, calling the moratorium a "pause" that will let Royal
Oak "have a couple months of a reduced police force under our belts."

The moratorium passed 6-1 with City Commissioner Jim Rasor
dissenting. He wanted to amend the 180-day ban to require the Royal
Oak Police Department to compile information on the interested
clinic operators, where they want to offer the service, and whether
fees could be charged if they cause problems that turn into police matters.

"I don't want the inertia to pass us by," Rasor said.

His suggestion didn't get any support from other commissioners.

"Why don't we legalize prostitution because we would get a lot of
revenue from that?" City Commissioner Terry Drinkwine asked.

Drinkwine said he supported legalizing medical marijuana with 72
percent of Royal Oak voters in November 2008 as a compassionate
alternative for patients with cancer and multiple sclerosis to cope
with pain and loss of appetite. However, he joined critics of the
vaguely written state ballot proposal, which doesn't set regulations
for clinics or dispensaries or the potency of the medical marijuana.

"I voted for it but it needs to happen in a logical way," Drinkwine said.

The state law passed by 63 percent of Michigan voters says qualified
patients can grow up to 12 plants for themselves or get medical
marijuana from a caregiver allowed to grow up to 12 plants each for
up to five patients.

Royal Oak was moving toward regulating caregivers by changing the
local zoning law to limit them to general business districts if they
receive a special land use permit from the Plan Commission. In
March, the planning panel recommended the City Commission adopt the change.

Mayor Jim Ellison was ready to act on the zoning change Monday but
he supported the moratorium for his colleagues who want to move slower.

"Our goal should be to implement this as best we can," Ellison said
of the state law.

Police Chief Christopher Jahnke is urging Royal Oak officials to go
the way of Livonia and change the city's ordinance to prohibit
businesses in violation of federal law. Medical marijuana clinics
then would be banned because federal law prohibits possession and
delivery of marijuana.

Semchena, a former prosecutor, shares police concerns about the
possibility of increased crime and surplus medical marijuana being
distributed illegally.

"This is a gateway drug and the quantity of marijuana that can be
grown by one caregiver is so enormously large it can't be consumed
by five patients," Semchena said. "I don't know where all these
drugs will go if they don't end up in the hands of kids."