HOLLAND TO PUT HOLD ON MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES?

Public to Weigh in on Issue July 13

Holland, MI - Since Michigan voters approved a medical marijuana law
two years ago, local municipalities have been trying to figure out how
it would affect them.

"At this point, (city officials) don't have any idea how they're going
to take care of this," City Attorney Andy Mulder said following a
closed session Tuesday afternoon to discuss a written legal opinion on
the proposed moratorium. The state law created a certifying process
for patients and caregivers in the event a patient can't or doesn't
want to grow marijuana, but the law is sometimes vague. Holland
officials don't know what the new city ordinance would say or even
what it would specifically regulate.

"That's still an open question - of where we go with it," said Phil
Meyer, director of the Holland Community and Neighborhood Services
Department.

The planning commission will hear from the public July 13 on the
issue.

Holland is looking at other new local laws in the state to see "what's
working and what isn't," Meyer said. In Sturgis, a town of 11,000
south of Battle Creek on the Michigan-Indiana border, medical
marijuana zoning and city codes went into effect last month.

"We created a special land use for (marijuana) manufacturing and
distribution facilities," Sturgis City Manager Mike Hughes said.

They're only allowed in manufacturing districts and cannot be within
1,000 feet of a church, child care facility, drug-free school zone or
residential district. Only a qualified patient can grow marijuana in
his or her own home and only for his or her own use.

The city hadn't seen any evidence that dispensaries were coming to
town, Hughes said.

"We hadn't had to deal with any of that," he said." There was really
nothing regulating how it would be dispensed or manufactured from a
zoning stand point. ... We wanted to be proactive."