STATE LEADERS MUST CLARIFY HAZY MEDICAL MARIHUANA ACT

GENESEE COUNTY - Local governments across the county are playing
catch-up as the demand to bring medical marijuana businesses here grows.

These establishments - from dispensaries to patient and caregiver
clubs to medical marijuana schools - could either pump thousands into
the local economy or draw crime and lawsuits, depending who you ask.

FJ: Some of that - medical marijuana schools, and private clubs -
very well may be safe under the state law.

But did Michigan voters OK storefront medical marijuana dispensaries
when they overwhelmingly legalized the drug for patient use and
caregiver growing?

That question, and others, isn't answered in a hazy law that's in
need of much clarification.

The flood of interest has officials across Genesee County - from the
village manager in Otisville to the clerk in Flint Township -
scrambling to study up on the state's medical marijuana law and what,
if anything, they should pass on a local level to address it.

Most communities have more questions - What qualifies as a medical
marijuana business? What constitutes a club? How is a dispensary
defined? - than answers.

A Flint Journal poll of Genesee County's 33 cities, villages and
townships found four - Clio, Richfield Township, Grand Blanc Township
and Fenton Township - have passed ordinances addressing the medical
marijuana law.

Nine passed temporary moratoriums while they figure out an ordinance.

Nineteen have passed nothing.

In Flint, voters passed an ordinance in 2007 allowing medical
marijuana, even before it was legal in the state.

FJ: Or, do local governments need to do anything to allow the law to
work in Michigan? The "Michigan Marihuana Act" is that unclear.

"There's definitely an explosion of interest in this," Jeremy
Rupinski, co-founder and director of the Genesee County Compassion Club.

"People are looking at this like an economic opportunity," he added.

At the Genesee Township club, state-registered patients can smoke
together, try different varieties of pot and share information. The
group has grown to 1,800 members in less than a year. Rupinski and
other compassion club officials have visited "numerous town councils"
this summer to educate and field questions from local governments.

It's easy to see the drug's cash crop potential - 24,831 across the
state have been approved to use medical marijuana since the law took
effect last year.

FJ: Yet, the state law provides only that medical marijuana patients
may grow up to 12 plants apiece for their own use. It also says
registered caregivers may grow as many as a dozen pants for each of a
maximum of five patients - and collect reasonable compensation for
their trouble.

Hard to see the profit in that law.

Yet, we have this scramble to accommodate medical marijuana
"businesses." Why? Because the law is vague enough to lead some to
believe they are allowed.

In July, for example, Flint Township officials attempted to shut down
a new business that hosts classes on medical pot. The business
violated a township moratorium on "medical marijuana uses," officials
said. Only after the owner showed up at a board meeting explaining
that no pot was allowed on-site did trustees reverse the decision.

FJ: Here's an example of a business that would have been legal even
without the medical marijuana law. The First Amendment's protection
of free speech guards the free flow of information - even about marijuana.

But some say attempts to sort through that vagueness have crossed the line.

Local ordinances across the state have "become a real problem that
we're looking at," said Rana Elmir, communications director with the
American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. The ACLU in July sent
letters to Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, asking them to rescind
ordinances they say ban legal use of medical marijuana.

Those ordinances ban medical marijuana by saying residents can't
break federal law, Elmir said. It's a loophole some local governments
have taken to enact the strictest possible restriction - outlawing
medical marijuana - but, so far, no Genesee County communities
haven't taken this route.

FJ: Kind of a reversal of the old state's rights argument - blame it
on the federal government, which still holds marijuana to be a
narcotic, and strictly illegal. Leaning on the federal prohibition is
a cop-out in communities where leaders don't want to deal with
medical marijuana, which Michigan voters have legalized.

Fenton Township decided to cope with it by banning primary caregivers
from operating outside their home or growing with another primary
caregiver. Primary caregivers are licensed to grow and provide
medical marijuana to licensed patients.

The township's law will keep dispensaries out of the neighborhood.

"The act is so loosely written and so nebulous and open to
interpretation that there's going to be ton's of lawsuits," said
Davison Township Supervisor Kurt Soper. Davison Township has a
moratorium banning medical marijuana while they fashion an ordinance,
Soper said.

FJ: It's a state law, so it's up to the state - either through
administrative rules from the Michigan Department of Community
Health, or by law enacted in the Legislature - to clear the smoke
from these issues.

Otherwise, communities are forced to roll their own ordinances. So
far, that hasn't gone too well, with police in some communities
seizing marijuana grown outdoors, or raiding indoor grow operations.

Meanwhile, patients who have a right to grow and use the drug may be
stymied by moratoriums in confused communities.

"If there's one theme in this entire conversation it's that the
statute's incredibly vague," said Adam Zettel, zoning administrator
in Swartz Creek, which has not yet considered an ordinance.

Both Rupinski and the ACLU said some local control is reasonable.
It's an issue communities may no other choice but to take some ownership of.

Rupinski said he knows people who are interested in launching some
type of business - from equipment shops to dispensaries - but are
waiting on local governments to make up their minds.

FJ: There's your opening, state officials, for writing rules
clarifying the medical marijuana law.

Are businesses, which by definition are in it for the money, OK? How
about dispensaries? Where can caregivers conduct their grow operations?

If ever we saw a law that needs more work - and much clearer
guidelines, it's the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act.

Get to work, health department officials.

Barring that, sharpen your pencils, lawmakers, and write some
amendments that enhance this act, and make life easier for both
patients and their communities.