KALAMAZOO TOWNSHIP MEDICAL MARIJUANA ORDINANCE IS OVERREACHING AND
OPPRESSIVE, ATTORNEY SAYS

KALAMAZOO TOWNSHIP - With a proposed new ordinance, elected officials
in Kalamazoo Township are seeking to control the growth of medical
marijuana caregiver operations in the township's neighborhoods.

But medical marijuana advocates and attorneys who have defended
clients in cases dealing with the drug say the proposed law is
overreaching and opens up the township for potential lawsuits.

The proposed ordinance, which was before the township board for first
reading last week, would relegate medical marijuana caregiver
operations to business, industrial and commercial zones in the
township. Those facilities also cannot have more than three
caregivers operating out of them and would be subject to a visit by a
building enforcement official to ensure that township building codes
were being adhered to.

"We wanted to keep large grow operations out of our neighborhoods,"
board Trustee Mark Miller said.

A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for March 14, when the
board could vote to adopt the ordinance.

But when additional restrictions under the ordinance are taken into
account - that even in those zones a medical marijuana growing
facility cannot be within 1,000 feet a school or day care, within 500
feet of a church or other religious temple, within 500 feet of a
public park or within 1,000 feet of another caregiver facility - the
areas where grow operations would be allowed are very small parcels.

The ordinance would allow for medical marijuana patients to grow the
drug for themselves and to distribute it to no more than one other
person, as long as that individual is also a patient and a member of
their household.

"They've added so many regulations that for all intents and purposes
they are making it essentially illegal (to grow medical marijuana in
the township)," said Daniel Grow, an attorney who has litigated
several medical marijuana related cases. "On balance it (the
ordinance) really erodes the intent of the act. It's oppressive and
makes it more difficult to be a caregiver and a patient."

When asked if he thought the township would open itself up to
potential litigation if the ordinance is passes, Grow said: "I think so."

And even though she said the township has not seen an uptick in crime
as a result of medical marijuana, Supervisor Terri Mellinger said the
ordinance is simply the township's way of ensuring there is "a
control factor" established for the growth of the drug.

"It is a limited area. We wanted to restrict it," Mellinger, who was
part of a five-member panel that drafted the proposed ordinance, said
of the small area where medical marijuana caregivers could grow the
drug. "You wouldn't want a liquor store next to a church or school.
We want a control factor. There are kids in the area."

Mellinger said her township is enduring what several local units of
government across the state have for several months now: the burden
of having to wade through what many have called a state law full of
gray areas to craft regulations to establish how medical marijuana is
dealt with in their municipalities.

"We are trying to avoid problems," she said. "The state law doesn't
have any guidelines for local governments. We don't want to create a
problem. We're trying to hear everybody out and be fair about it."

Fair is the last word Greg Francisco, executive director of the
Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, said he would use to describe
the township's proposed ordinance.

"These barriers are clearly out to thwart the will of the people,"
who overwhelmingly passed the state's medical-marijuana law in
November 2008, Francisco said. "They are simply overstepping their
boundaries and are opening themselves up to being sued. It's all based on fear.

"No matter how many times they (municipalities) read the law, they
can't get it to say what they want it to say. It's (medical
marijuana) becoming more and more entrenched, though. We're not worried."