MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWSUIT COULD BRING CHANGES

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday against
Livonia, Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills on behalf of a Birmingham
couple who want to use medical marijuana at home, take it to a club
in Bloomfield Hills and grow it in their Livonia warehouse.

The case could broaden or curtail medical marijuana use in Michigan,
lawyers on both sides of the issue said.

"Each of these cities has an ordinance that effectively bans the use
of medical marijuana," ACLU Director Kary Moss said. The lawsuit in
Wayne County Circuit Court asks that the ordinances be declared "void
and unenforceable."

Officials of the three cities said their ordinances were aimed at
drug dealers and others who would abuse the Michigan Medical
Marijuana Act, but they said it was unclear whether their local rules
banned all use of the drug.

"I guess I'd have to give it more thought," whether the local
ordinance banned all use by medical-marijuana patients, Livonia City
Attorney Don Knapp said.

Birmingham City Commissioner George Dilgard said the April vote on
the ordinance "didn't get into much depth whether a person could or
could not use it at home."

Birmingham resident Linda Lott, 61, said her 28 years of multiple
sclerosis led to debilitating muscle spasms and bouts of intense pain
until her neurologist told her that marijuana might help.

"I just take one quick smoke of it" to get relief for as long as a
day, said Lott, who sat in a wheelchair Wednesday at the ACLU offices
in Detroit. Lott said Birmingham's ordinance made her afraid to leave
her house.

The ordinance, like those of Bloomfield Hills and Livonia, does not
mention marijuana, simply saying that any activity that violates
federal law is banned and punishable as a misdemeanor. But
discussions by officials before votes on the ordinances showed they
targeted medical marijuana.

Lott said she has a state-approval card and her husband has a card to
be a caregiver -- one who provides the drug. Robert Lott said he
owned a 50,000-square-foot warehouse where he hoped to raise
marijuana for their use; he uses it to treat his glaucoma. But he
said he feared arrest in Livonia, his wife no longer took classes and
socialized at their private club in Bloomfield Hills, and that a
Birmingham assistant police chief told him not to carry marijuana in his car.

State law allows an approved patient to carry up to 2.5 ounces of the
drug and own as many as 12 plants. The lawsuit does not ask for any money.