EXPERT SAYS MEDICAL MARIJUANA REGULATION WILL HAVE TO COME FROM LOCAL
GOVERNMENTS

An expert on local regulation of medical marijuana-related businesses
told Union Township planners Wednesday that she doesn't expect the
state to act anytime soon to clear up questions about the law,
leaving it up to local governments.

Lawyer Andria M. Ditschman of the Lansing-based Hubbard Law Firm said
as the state's majority of first-term lawmakers deal with Michigan's
budget crisis, they won't have much time or inclination to take up
medical marijuana. Voters overwhelmingly passed an initiative in 2008
legalizing the medical use of cannabis, but that law left many
questions unanswered.

"It isn't written poorly," Ditschman said. "It's actually very
cleverly written."

The township has begun the process of coming up with the best way to
regulate businesses that serve medical marijuana patients and
caregivers. The township began a moratorium last week to allow
planners to develop the laws and regulations.

"The state law does not give any commercial rights," Ditschman said.
"There's no state definition of dispensary."

Yet, she said, dispensaries, growing cooperatives, apothecaries,
compassion clubs and smokehouses have gone into business.

"It's the activity itself that's allowed under state law," she said.
Federal law is another matter; possession of marijuana still is a
federal crime.

But, she pointed out, that federal agents are not supposed to be
aiming at medical marijuana users or related cannabusinesses unless
there's an indication of other lawbreaking, such as weapons, selling
other drugs, money laundering or violence.

Ditschman said she's working with several different communities
developing both licensing and zoning rules.

"I don't have one that has even half a licensing ordinance yet," she
said. But licensing likely would look at issues such as security,
ventilation, labeling of products, possibly requiring a commercial
kitchen be used for preparation of edible marijuana products.

"These are entirely separate from zoning," she said. That would set
rules that tell marijuana-related businesses where they can set up shop.

Ditschman said it appears the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act does
permit patient-to-patient transfers of the drug, as well as transfers
from a patient's caregiver to the patient. She said she would
recommend against getting involved in the regulation of a patient's
use of marijuana in the patient's own house, but could require
caregivers some of whom serve multiple patients to get licenses.

"Would you permit a caregiver? I would," she told the planners. "You
wouldn't need a patient's name."

That would protect the medical privacy of the patient using marijuana
to provide pain relief.

The township planning commission is expected to spend at least six
months working on the regulations while the moratorium is in place.