CALL RISES TO FIX MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW

Royal Oak official pushes for grassroots campaign to add provisions
for growing and sales to statute

Municipalities need to pressure Lansing to remedy the state law that
legalizes medical marijuana use but doesn't establish manufacturing
and distribution rules, according to one Royal Oak official.

On Monday, City Commissioner Chuck Semchena will urge his colleagues
to begin a grassroots campaign to push state lawmakers to amend the
Medical Marihuana Act with provisions that regulate where the plants
are grown and how the end products are dispensed to patients.

"There are no fewer than six bills languishing in committee that
could make the manufacturing and distribution of medical marijuana
similar to other prescription drugs," Semchena said. "I want to
kick-start the effort to address this."

The bills pending in Lansing would require the state health
department to license growing facilities, allow only 10 facilities to
be licensed per year, limit dispensing to licensed pharmacists,
prohibit convicted felons from being caregivers, and ban medical
marijuana clubs or bars.

In the meantime, Royal Oak is facing the expiration of its ban on
medical marijuana facilities on Oct. 20; legal action from a building
owner denied an exemption to the moratorium for a growing operation
that could save the warehouse from foreclosure; and a Sept. 20 public
hearing for another exemption request by operators of a proposed
downtown dispensary.

Also, last week the Downtown Development Authority unanimously
recommended Royal Oak ban medical marijuana facilities by passing a
local ordinance prohibiting all land uses illegal under federal law.
Although 14 states legalized medical marijuana use for qualified
patients, growing, selling and possessing marijuana still violates federal law.

At least 11 Michigan municipalities have bans -- Macomb Township
could be next -- and at least 23 have moratorium that are expiring.
Several have or plan to allow growers and distributors in restricted zones.

Macomb Township officials recently directed their attorneys to
research and draft ordinances that would govern the distribution of
the drugs without violating the state law that permits its use.

"The law leaves a lot of gray area," said Michael Koehs, Macomb Township clerk.

Koehs said local officials simply need direction on many aspects of
how and where marijuana should be provided for medical purposes.

"Can somebody open a store in a strip mall ... and grow it and sell
it?" Koehs said. "We don't think they can."

Mark Grabow, Macomb Township supervisor, agreed with the clerk.

"If this is truly coming down the pike ... we want to get this into
the correct zone," he said.

Koehs predicted the questions ultimately will have to be resolved by judges.

"It's going to end up in the courts for years," he said. "I really
believe that."

Last week outside the Oakland County Circuit Court, medical marijuana
patients and advocates protested the arrest of nearly 20 people
including drug raids at a Ferndale dispensary called Clinical Relief
and a Waterford compassion club called Everbody's Cafe.

Ferndale has a 90-day moratorium that expires this week and city
officials there voted to allow medical marijuana businesses in
certain industrial and office zones. Clinical Relief opened in June
before the moratorium.

Undercover officers with the Oakland County Sheriff's Narcotics
Enforcement Team said they bought medical marijuana without a
state-issued card certifying they are patients and witnessed
hand-to-hand drug deals in the parking lot of Ferndale's only
dispensary. Arrests were made for the illegal growing and selling marijuana.

Oakland County's elected officials have said ambiguities in the state
law about caregivers, who can grow up to 12 plants each for five
patients, need to be clarified. Following the raids, Sheriff Michael
Bouchard said he thinks voters passed the law in 2008 to help people
suffering from diseases like cancer and multiple sclerosis.

"This has gone far (away) from that," Bouchard at a press conference
last month, pointing to patients who received medical marijuana cards
for things such as stomachaches and shoulder pain.

The sheriff said others are using the law to give illegal operations
an air of legality. During the raids, undercover investigators seized
guns and found an alligator protecting the product at one location.

"It will get nothing but worse," Bouchard has said. "There will be
more problems unless the Legislature does its job."

Semchena, a former county drug prosecutor, agrees.

"I don't see any way the current law protects our community from
violence and crime while allowing distribution to patients who truly
need the medicine," Semchena said. "I'm convinced that without
changes in Lansing we're headed toward disaster because every city
has reduced resources."

Sunday is the last day of work for two Royal Oak firefighters and
nine police officers pink-slipped earlier this year because of budget
cuts. The city commissioner said he doesn't want financially strapped
Michigan cities to see increased police problems.

Semchena points to The White Paper on Marijuana Dispensaries written
by California police chiefs. The paper says the dispensaries attract
a criminal element and scare away patrons of neighboring businesses.

"My constituents are saying they voted for medical marijuana because
they thought doctors would prescribe it and pharmacists would
distribute it," Semchena said. "The law is very deceptive. It merely
provides legal defenses for activities similar to the traditional
illegal manufacturing and distribution of narcotics. The state needs
to structure a better way to serve patients without hurting communities."