GOT POT?: CITIES STRUGGLE WITH NEW LAW

When Michigan residents in 2008 voted in a measure approving the use
of medical marijuana for qualified patients, the state suddenly found
itself on the front lines of a national legal and ideological battleground.

Residents, elected officials, planners and attorneys for many
municipalities are embroiled in debate and confusion over the
Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, which was approved by more than 63
percent of the state's population.

It is an emotional struggle, pitting those who are trying to
understand and reasonably enforce the law against those who see it as
a basic health care and human rights issue.

And for the time being, there seems to be little, if any, light at
the end of the tunnel.

Politics aside, it is local government and residents caught in the
trenches of this struggle as the legal nuances of the medical
marijuana law will invariably shake out in the courtroom.

In the city of Ypsilanti, the first medical marijuana dispensary in
the state opened in January, thrusting into the hands of city
officials the complicated issues of proper zoning and permitting, the
statute's relationship with federal law and the Public Health Code,
as well as the touchy subject of whether people want a dispensary in
their neighborhoods or Main Street areas.

So far, the arrangement has been a success, said Jamie Lowell of the
3rd Coast Compassion Center, a nonprofit that offers medical
marijuana to some 2,000 licensed patients, in addition to caregiver
consulting, educational classes and advocacy networking.

"We've been totally transparent with the city from the beginning,"
Lowell said. "We've tried to work with them, we've had them up here
and we've showed up at the various meetings.

"(The city) has done a good job of gathering people together to
research everything that they can. They have gotten information from
several sources."

The building, at 19 N. Hamilton St., is a historic structure nestled
comfortably in a residential neighborhood mostly occupied by Eastern
Michigan University students. At one point, it was home to a funeral
parlor and then served as headquarters for Girl Scouts.

Area resident and EMU teacher Darrell Stavros has owned the building
since 1994, and he, too, now helps manage the center.

Despite signs that read, "Medicine and cash not kept overnight," and
some educational materials posted on the outer doors, one probably
would never realize while casually walking by that the historic
structure has opened the doors for dispensaries across the state.

Of course, the first question most people ask when they do realize
that the one-time funeral home is now a medical marijuana dispensary
is: How does it work?

The 3rd Coast Compassion Center is, essentially, a private club for
state-certified patients who can buy and use medical marijuana on
site, and for caregivers who develop relationships with the
collective and provide medicine.

How the process works is that caregivers who grow more than what they
need can bring that in and get it into the hands of patients who are
currently without medicine.

Lowell describes it as a "dispensing collective" that is not meant to
substitute the patient-caregiver relationship as prescribed in the
law, but rather as a means to ensure patients have an uninterrupted
flow of medical marijuana.

"We're not designed in taking over that caregiver relationship, and
we make those relationships here, as well, sometimes," Lowell said.
"Everything here is pretty small and controlled. There's not volumes
of things going on here. And it is all well within all the parameters
of the act."

As far as paying the bills, Lowell said they accept donations from
the private club of people from 3rd Coast to pay salaries and offset
costs of the building.

Security at 3rd Coast is tight, with cameras outside and a security
guard checking identification at the door. Addressing universal
concerns about dispensaries generating more crime because of the
nature of the business, Lowell said that by occupying what was a
vacant building, developing security and more foot traffic in the
area, they have had a reduction in crime.

"This building hadn't been used for two years," he said. "We created
jobs. We've fixed up the house and outside.

"To have a building that's functional with cameras and security
guards, people going in and out, it reduces the crime. An empty house
creates much more potential for crime."

At the same time, however, Lowell said he does understand area
officials having reservations about the dispensary issue because it
is such a foreign concept.

"It is definitely a 180-degree turn for some of these people and
that's part of the problem for these municipalities," he said. "It's
just a totally different way of thinking.

"In their defense, they're not bad people nor really against us, but
this is totally foreign thinking to them. This thing that they have
been told for years is evil, now is suddenly being presented as good
medicine and legal.

"The reality is, though, we are trying to figure things out just like
everybody else. Some of the law enforcement and prosecutors, they
have honest intentions and they are trying to figure things out, too.
But there are people who are distinctly opposed, and that's it and it
doesn't matter what the truth is."

Zoning changes and regulations being addressed by the Ypsilanti
Planning Commission will have no impact on the 3rd Coast Compassion
Center as it is grandfathered in, Mayor Paul Schreiber said.

Once Planning Commission members develop a list of recommendations,
the City Council will address the dispensary issue in earnest; but
until then, it essentially is a non-issue unless they are provided
further guidelines from the state.

"What is going on is that we don't really have a lot of direction
from the state," Schreiber said. "The Planning Commission is in
charge of determining the proper areas to have dispensaries."

Schreiber said it is a fluid situation, thus prompting the city to OK
a moratorium on medical marijuana-related businesses, namely
dispensaries, until the issues can be sorted out at the planning level.

"The only reason we have (a moratorium) is because we don't want to
have any radical changes while the issue is being discussed by the
Planning Commission," he said.

In Ann Arbor, officials are going through a similar situation, having
approved a four-month moratorium on dispensaries in August and
delaying a Sept. 22 vote by the Ann Arbor Planning Commission on a
proposed medical marijuana ordinance that was characterized as too restrictive.

The moratorium ends Dec. 3, and for longtime advocates such as
resident Chuck Ream, who opened his own dispensary business several
months ago on Packard Road, all eyes are focused on the proposed
zoning and ordinance changes that could inhibit dispensaries and how
they conduct business.

Ream was advised by his attorney and the Med Mar Compassionate
Healthcare of Ann Arbor board of directors not to comment on this
report. He said they need to focus right now on getting medicine into
the hands of their patients.

The Ann Arbor area is home to what is believed to be eight or nine
dispensaries serving thousands of patients. City officials have said
in previous meetings that they are sympathetic to patients' needs and
rights under the statute and hope to have an ordinance approved soon.

The temporary ban prohibits the start-up or expansion of any
facilities on city property.

This does not apply to:

. A dwelling where a qualifying patient resides and is cultivating
up to the maximum number of permitted marijuana plants for personal
use or possesses up to the maximum amount of marijuana permitted for
personal use.

. A building, structure or other dwelling where no more than one
qualified patient or primary care giver is cultivating or possesses
up to the maximum number of marijuana plants or amount permitted.

While officials in neighboring communities such as Ann Arbor and
Ypsilanti are looking at simple ordinance amendments to regulate
dispensaries, the city of Belleville has chosen to explore additional
regulations on top of addressing the issue through zoning.

In recent meetings, the City Council has asked its attorney, John
Day, to look at not only appropriate zoning practices for a possible
medical marijuana dispensary, but also a permitting process in an
attempt to group marijuana-related businesses with such businesses as
tattoo parlors and massage parlors.

Can the City of Belleville Do That According to the Statute?

"There is nothing in there that says we can't, and there is nothing
in there that says we can," Day said.

Like Belleville and other areas, Day said he believes most
municipalities are doing their best to be proactive on the dispensary
issue. But, he is quick to point out that because of the vagueness of
the law, he hopes the state Legislature will step in at some point
and create more defined regulations.

"(The state) could make it so that you could have a dispensary, and
they could clean up this idea about the growing," Day said.

"They could set up a more regulated distribution center, maybe
something like what they have done with alcohol. And there are other
ways of regulating, but most communities aren't real sure of which way to go."

Day said that despite the more stringent approach the city has taken
regarding the dispensary issue, it has received backlash from
residents afraid that officials are legalizing marijuana in their
neighborhoods.

He hopes that public hearings regarding the zoning amendments, to be
set in the near future, will clear up some of the misunderstanding.

"We've had a lot of people come out and say by passing these
regulations that we're legalizing marijuana," Day said. "We're not.
It's still illegal.

"But we have this law that provides for this structure, and if we
don't address some of these things, then what is to stop somebody
from putting a distribution center next to City Hall or next to a school?"

Is Medical Marijuana Legal?

Even with a voter-approved referendum law, a set of guidelines
allowing for the exchange and use of medical marijuana and non-profit
businesses springing up in a number of areas across the state
answering the question of whether medical marijuana is "legal" in
Michigan is still challenging, at best.

To complicate matters, a recent opinion written by Judge Peter
O'Connell on an Oakland County medical marijuana defense case argues
that there are a number of contradictory areas in the act and
prescribed violations of the Public Health Code.

O'Connell makes it clear that his interpretation of the act, which is
in no way legally binding, is that the MMMA does not legalize medical
marijuana. It simply sets forth a broad set of guidelines for
patients with debilitating illnesses to be protected from prosecution
under the law for possessing and using marijuana.

"The MMMA does not create any sort of affirmative right under state
law to use or possess marijuana," O'Connell says. "Although these
individuals are still violating the public health code by using
marijuana, the MMMA sets forth particular circumstances under which
they will not be arrested or otherwise prosecuted for their lawbreaking."

The problem with the act, O'Connell says further, is that it is
"inartfully drafted," and has created confusion at all levels of government.

He advises residents to be wary of taking liberties with the act.

"Accordingly, the confusing nature of the MMMA, and its
susceptibility to multiple interpretations, creates an untoward risk
for Michiganders," O'Connell's opinion says. "Reading the statute
carelessly or out of context could result in jail or prison time for
many of our citizens."

Attorney Day agrees, for the most part, with O'Connell's conclusions,
but cautions that the opinion itself is merely advisory, at best, and
will have very little effect on future litigation.

He said that from the standpoint of the city of Belleville, officials
are concerned with how the act will impact zoning and ordinance
amendments that could open the doors for a medical marijuana
dispensary within city limits.

But Day also has problems with the MMMA and suggests, because of all
the confusion the statute has caused, that parts of the act could be
addressed by the Legislature in the near future.

"It's possible that some of this legislation would be struck down,
and O'Connell is very clear about this that the use, possession and
sale of marijuana is still illegal," Day said. "And we are stuck with
the situation of because of these laws, we are possibly passing
zoning where we can allow someone to possess, handle and store
medical marijuana."

As for the dispensary issue, Day points to language in the MMMA that
covers distribution of medical marijuana through the
patient-caregiver relationship, but it doesn't cover selling.

"Nowhere in the statute does it cover the right to sell," Day said.
"They talk about distribution, but they never talk about selling. And
now people are starting these medical marijuana distribution things
and we're kind of stuck. Do they have the right to sell? Do they not
have the right to sell? That's the whole abyss we're in."

Jamie Lowell of Ypsilanti's 3rd Coast Compassion Center said those
who question the validity and use of the MMMA, are taking a very
narrow interpretation of language governing patients and caregivers,
while ignoring the entire spirit and intent of the law itself. He
said the entire concept of the dispensary is to provide an
uninterrupted flow of medicine to state-qualified patients. He said
it's more of a human rights issue than a question of the law.

"There are opposing forces who claim, by a philosophical difference
of the interpretation of the law, what places do that are dispensing
models of some kind are inherently illegal because it steps outside
of the patient-caregiver relationship," Lowell said. "What they are
trying to say is that is the only situation in which you can dispense
within; however, that would mean that patients would have go for long
periods of time before they can get to any medicine.

"The whole point of the law is to provide a broad set of protections
to allow for people to help facilitate to get this medicine to the
patients and you have to do that in reasonable amounts."

Lowell said it typically takes four to six months for caregivers to
grow the product and, during those times in between harvesting,
patients can get medicine at the dispensary.

"What we do here is absolutely aboveboard," he said, "and everything
we do here carries out the spirit and intent of this law and the
spirit and intent of what voters overwhelmingly approved in 2008 and
that is all that we do here.

"We do not step outside of the parameters of this Michigan Medical
Marihuana Act."

Day argues, however, that before businesses such as dispensaries are
given free license to administer provisions set forth in the MMMA,
some of the issues need to be tested in court, including how to
verify the initial doctor-patient relationship so that Michigan can
avoid "pot-docs."

"The reality is the law says it still is illegal," Day said. "You can
still get arrested, still get prosecuted and you can still get
brought to trial.

"But then you have to prove in court, by evidence, that you are, in
fact, using it for medical purposes. (The MMMA) gives you a defense,
but it doesn't prevent you from being arrested or keeping you from
going to trial."

Lowell, interestingly enough, agrees that the issues surrounding the
MMMA need to be weighed in court in a civil manner rather than
conducting any more police raids as happened in Oakland County.

"They want to paint this as being very vague and gray areas and
difficult to understand," Lowell said. "And there are things that
people wish could have been made a little more directly clear. But,
that being said, the patient needs a place to safely get medicine,
and if you interpret (the act) that it's OK to have patients go
without their medicine, that does not fit into the whole spirit and
intent of this law."

Through such groups as the Michigan Association of Compassion
Centers, Lowell hopes to be able to provide legal help to patients
who are in trouble.

"Some of these people in positions of power don't take this seriously
as health care," Lowell said. "There needs to be a means where we are
aware of these things and we can help by getting the proper lawyer in
the right positions to either defend somebody or sue somebody.

"That's the way we are going to get the spirit of this law fulfilled.
That's not what we would like to do. We would rather do it through
communication and education."