MEDICAL MARIJUANA RULES PROPOSED FOR BATTLE CREEK

City, Patients Set to Do Battle

Medical marijuana users and advocates say proposed regulations in
Battle Creek will severely limit patients' access to needed medication.

The city's Planning Commission on Wednesday heard the first proposal
from city staff about how to keep tabs on medical marijuana, which
Michigan voters approved in 2008.

Under the proposed regulations, one or two people in the same home
would be allowed to grow and use marijuana for their own medical use
if they've gotten a doctor's permission. Renters would need to get
written permission from the property owner.

As many as four users could live together along with four growers as
long as every person was considered part of the same household. The
city would require a license for these qualified households.

Growers, known as "caregivers" under the state law, would need a city
license and not be allowed within 1,000 feet of schools or licensed
day care facilities.

Smokehouses, clubs where people go to use medical marijuana, and
dispensaries, where growers can provide marijuana to people who are
not their designated patients, would be prohibited.

Compassion clubs, defined by the city as public or private clubs that
provide support services for medical marijuana uses, would be allowed
in some commercial zones, but growing, distributing and using the
drug at such clubs would be banned.

"This is not (putting) patients first, not at all," said Chris Jung
of Battle Creek, one of 20 people who addressed the Planning
Commission Wednesday with concerns about the proposal.

Many said it was important to be able to use their medicine some
place other than in their homes.

"I won't smoke in front of my kids," one woman said. "I'm legal, but
it's not right. We need a compassion club to be able to go to
medicate when we can't smoke it in our houses."

While not a user or grower herself, Pam Sparks said marijuana has
provided her brother with a far better life than when he was being
treated with methadone.

Sparks noted that city voters overwhelmingly backed the medical
marijuana law and that no one was raising objections now.

"It doesn't seem like there's a lot of people concerned about it or
complaining about it," she said.

The outcry at the meeting influenced at least one planning
commissioner. John Godfrey asked that the city revisit its
recommendation and give people an option for smoking outside of their homes.

The Planning Commission will meet again Dec. 1 to decide whether to
recommend approval of the zoning ordinance. That part, plus the
licensing requirements, would then go to the City Commission, where
it will likely be introduced Dec. 7 and possibly finalized Dec. 21.

A local six-month moratorium on new medical marijuana businesses in
Battle Creek expires in January.