MARIJUANA ZONING: EMMET A VOTE AWAY FROM BANNING DISPENSARIES

A Charlevoix storefront sign placed in jest in 2009 proclaiming a
marijuana shop was coming to town may have been the first sign of a
coming debate over medicinal pot statewide.

While that sign was a joke, communities creating zoning enclaves
throughout Michigan to deal with a growing marijuana patient and
producer industry is not.

Emmet County is a Thursday night vote away from taking action to
prohibit commercial medical marijuana dispensaries.

The proposed amendment aims to circumvent Michigan law by applying
the wording "any commercial use of land(s) or of building(s) that
violates state or federal law is prohibited" to the commercial zoning
code in Emmet County.

Under the proposed change, commercial businesses would ultimately be
subjected to the federal law - which prohibits the medical use of marijuana.

Emmet County attorney Kathy Abbott said the measure would essentially
create a moratorium on commercial medical marijuana dispensaries.

"It allows (the county) to put a hold on dispensaries until it is
ready to do something, or leave it the way it is," Abbott said. "It's
these commercial businesses that are popping up - whether they were
ever intended by the legislation is questionable."

In 2008, voters statewide passed the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act
(by a 3 million to 1.7 million opposed vote) allowing patients in
Michigan to receive a medical marijuana card for up to 2.5 ounces to
be kept by patients.

Michigan is among the 14 states and the District of Columbia to have
passed laws legalizing pot as a form of treatment.

Received by a doctor's recommendation, a patient then must grow their
own marijuana or receive medical marijuana from a "caregiver."

To date, 18,658 patient registrations and 8,063 caregiver
registrations have been issued in Michigan. Another 4,832 applicants
have been denied.

The proposed Emmet County zoning change would specifically prevent
"caregivers" from turning their home businesses into a commercial endeavor.

"We are not talking about individual residents with cards, but rather
the dispensaries that are popping up all over the state," said Brentt
Michalek, Emmet County Planning, Zoning and Construction Services director.

Michalek said the zoning change would prohibit dispensaries under the
amendment because they would not adhere to the federal law.

"We're saying you're not going to set up a smoke shop as a primary
subject and growing it there and going to distribute it," he said.

Bear Creek, Friendship, Littlefield and Springvale townships
supported the proposed change, Michalek added.

Although Emmet County commissioners Leroy Gregory, Jack Jones and Dan
Plasencia supported the amendment at the county planning commission
previously, commissioner Tom Shier questioned whether the wording
meets the local voters' intent from 2008.

"I'm concerned about the law situation here," Shier said.

In Emmet County, voters supported medical legalization by more than a
3 to 2 ratio. Of the 17,605 people who cast votes for the proposal,
10,459 voters favored legalization and 7,246 were opposed.

Emmet County Sheriff Pete Wallin said he was not yet familiar with
the wording of the amendment, but opposed any zoning change that
would remove the local authority in favor of state or federal controls.

The Zoning Question

The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act is not clear about how
municipalities should zone for the new medical phenomenon.

The Health Department of Northwest Michigan defers to the Michigan
Department of Community Health for all medical marijuana issues at this point.

The Michigan Department of Community Health officials say they defer
to local municipalities.

Lansing has approached medical pot as a home business. Birmingham is
presently looking for zoning means to create a prohibition.

The proposed Emmet County zoning change is a conservative shift from
what Traverse City is considering just 60 miles south.

Rather than passing one amendment to the Traverse City zoning code,
Traverse City planning director Russ Soyring explained that the city
planning commission has proposed three different zoning changes to
address how to handle medical marijuana.

Traverse City is planning to the amend its downtown commercial zoning
code - formally zoned a community center district - to create
"collectives" for certified medical marijuana caregivers and patients
to interact and distribute marijuana, without causing heavy traffic
to residential homes of caregivers.

"It reminds me of a mini warehouse," Soyring said. "Everyone would
have their special place where they could have medical marijuana,
exchange the marijuana and meet between patients and caregivers."

Soyring said a provision would require all marijuana to be removed
from the building after hours.

A second provision would allow card-holding single family residences
to grow up to 72 medical marijuana plants, under the proposed plan.

"The way we have set up the number 72 is if you were a caregiver with
five patients you get to have 12 plants per patient, and you can be a
patient yourself," Soyring said. Multi-family settings or duplexes
would be limited to 12 plants.

A third proposed amendment would create a marijuana growing district
under the industrial zoning code, where distribution would not be allowed.

Soyring said the overall plan is to keep homes feeling like homes and
to protect the overall character of the Traverse City community.

"We kind dissected, split the various components of medical
marijuana, looking at the various components for places where you can
exchange it, places where you can grow it and other places where you
can use it," he said.

The federal law loophole Emmet County is proposing has been tried
before, says Joe Cain, chief operating officer for the Medical
Marijuana Association.

"What they are trying to use is judicial superiority to trump state
law," Cain said. "The argument has no merit. Judicial superiority
does not apply unless a constitutional matter is in question. Not
only is there no constitutional issue involved, but the federal
government has deferred to the state, when it comes to medical
marijuana, not to municipalities."

Attorney Michael Kormon, the president of the Michigan Medical
Marijuana Association, said municipalities attempting to derive new
laws and ordinances is an interesting dynamic happening across the state.

"People that have used the democratic process to go out and get an
initiative across the ballot, its voted in to reflect the will of the
people, and now there are about 27 cities in the state that have
enacted similar ordinances using the (Emmet County) language," Kormon said.

"Some people maintain a 'reefer madness' attitude toward marijuana,"
said Tracie Kolhoff, who oversees a "compassion club" in neighboring
Cheboygan County.

Compassion clubs throughout Michigan link new and current patients
with information about growing cannabis, following laws and
developing contacts for patients, doctors and caregivers.

"Dispensaries have been assets to most communities that allow them. I
recently was told that nearly 70 people attended a clinic in
Cheboygan to get their Medical Marijuana Recommendation," Kolhoff
said. "In Traverse City and Muskegon the numbers were similar. Were
it not for the political baggage of cannabis, it may well be
considered a 'wonder drug.'"

Kolhoff also points to the small business and job creation
opportunities of local dispensaries.

"Much like small wineries, it provides variety to the patients and
allows them to fine tune their needs to particular strains of the
plants which meet their needs," she said. "If medical cannabis were
provided through pharmacies, the strains, selection and many benefits
to the community would be lost."

Dr. Michael Notorangelo, an addiction specialist at Hope by the Bay
in Harbor Springs, said while he sees the potential good for terminal
patients, he supports Emmet County's proposed amendment.

"From an income perspective there is a huge incentive to do medical
marijuana," Notorangelo said. "You could have people lined up around
the block. But, from a recovery and ethical point of view, this flies
in the face of addiction medicine and it's disturbing that there are
doctors coming up (from southern Michigan) writing (prescriptions)
for it. I find it very disturbing."

Notorangelo said there are other ways of treating for conditions such
as anxiety than pot.

A medical marijuana clinic established in the Harbor Springs area
declined to comment for this article.

The Emmet County Board of Commissioners will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday
in the Commissioners Room at the Emmet County Building in downtown Petoskey.