LEGAL POT APPLICATIONS SWAMP STATE

Patient Cards Are Delayed by Backlog

State health officials are overwhelmed with applicants seeking to use
marijuana legally for medical conditions, a state official said Tuesday.

The Michigan Department of Community Health received 56,513
applications for its registry of authorized users in the past 19
months, including new applications and renewals. It has a policy to
approve or deny applications in 15 days.

"We're not doing that," said Melanie Brim, director of the
department's Bureau of Health Professions. She discussed the problem
at the Michigan Municipal League's annual convention at the Hyatt
Regency Hotel in Dearborn. Brim was one of three speakers at a
discussion titled the Medical Marijuana Act and Your Community.

Communities across the state have created ordinances to address vague
parts of the law and to regulate or ban marijuana dispensaries. Last
month, three businesses and 12 homes of medical marijuana
distributors were raided in Oakland County.

Last week in Auburn Hills, a man was arrested on charges of having
only a 4-foot chain link fence around his marijuana plants. State law
requires that the plants be in a secured and locked area.

Speakers at Tuesday's event included Catherine Mish, the city
attorney for Grand Rapids, one of the first cities in the state to
enact an ordinance governing medical marijuana after the law took
effect in April 2009, and Andria Ditschman of the Hubbard Law Firm in
Lansing, which advises communities seeking to draft ordinances.

All said the law is too vague in areas.

Brim said that the health department is thousands of applications
behind and now allows applicants who have waited at least 20 days to
show a copy to law enforcement.

The department issued 32,270 new and renewal patient cards and 13,868
caregiver cards for people who assist those who have patient cards.

Brim said the department underestimated the number of applicants it would have.

Mish urged cities to join in lawsuits to determine whether the state
law is valid under the "federal supremacy clause." It is not legal to
grow, possess, use or sell marijuana under federal law.

Ditschman advised cities thinking of regulating medical marijuana to
take a licensing or zoning approach.

"You don't want to overregulate because that will set you up for
litigation," she said.