MEDICAL MARIJUANA MORATORIUM EXPIRING; ROYAL OAK TO DISCUSS NEXT MOVE MONDAY

ROYAL OAK -- With a twice-passed moratorium expiring Feb. 13, it's
high time the City Commission decides where -- if anywhere -- it will
allow medical marijuana to be grown.

On Monday, elected officials will discuss -- and possibly decide --
whether to let certified patients grow up to 12 plants at their
residence for their use only or to cite federal law and ban it altogether.

The commission also could stonewall and extend the moratorium again
like many communities waiting for Lansing to handle manufacturing and
distribution questions.

The issue is sure to pack City Hall as it has in the past. On one
side are patients and their advocates calling for Royal Oak to adopt
compassionate ordinance provisions for people qualified to use
medical marijuana for symptoms from cancer, multiple sclerosis and
other diseases.

On the other side are residents concerned about crime and what they
see as a gateway drug being grown in houses, condos and apartments,
and perhaps falling into the wrong hands.

No matter which direction the commission goes, Royal Oak will not be
a city where dispensaries are allowed to operate. City officials
already have said they won't allow growers in commercial and industrial zones.

The pot pendulum has been swinging wildly in this suburb ever since
72 percent of Royal Oak voters and 63 percent of Michigan voters
approved medical marijuana in 2008.

Even some people who supported the state proposal are asking the
commission to enact a city-wide ban. Brett Tillander, executive
director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Oakland County, is one of
36 community leaders to sign a letter to editor (see
www.dailytribune.com) saying he fears a "decision to transform our
neighborhoods into community pot farms."

"My grandmother died of breast cancer and if she had wanted marijuana
I'd want her to get it," Tillander said. "The harm to the community
isn't patients medicating themselves to deal with chronic pain. The
problem is we have doctors writing prescriptions for anyone who pays
$800, and homes by schools, the boys and girls club, playgrounds
could turn into grow houses."

City Attorney David Gillam said he will tell the commission its
options but not make a recommendation.

"Communities are all over the board on this," Gillam said.

So is Royal Oak. In September, the commission voted 4-3 to take the
first step to ban medical marijuana by changing a zoning ordinance to
prohibit all land uses in violation of federal law. Because the
possession and use of marijuana is illegal under federal law,
possession and use of medical marijuana would be a violation of the
city's zoning law.

However, the ordinance change needs a second vote to be adopted. When
the ban came up for a final vote in October, patients and their
supporters filled City Hall with signs saying "Stay out of my
medicine cabinet" and requests not to turn them into criminals.

That night city Commissioners Pat Capello and David Poulton joined
Mayor Jim Ellison and Commissioners Michael Andrzejak and Jim Rasor
in opposition to the ban.

On Monday, the commission can take the vote to enact the ban or act
on a Plan Commission recommendation to allow all medical marijuana
activity to take place in a patient's house.

"Patients could use medical marijuana in their home and they could
grow it in their home or their caregiver could grow it for them in
their home," Gillam said. "All uses would be limited to the four
corners of the patient's house."

Capello said Friday there's no telling yet what the commission will do.

"This is going to develop at the table," she said. "I know I don't
support a total ban because I choose to comply with state law. It's
clear the state law allows the use of medical marijuana. The question
is how do we deal with it? We have lawyers at the table so everyone
will have to listen carefully."

City Commissioner Chuck Semchena, the former city attorney, continues
to push for a ban. He disagrees with legal interpretations that a
zoning ban on medical marijuana would also prohibit patients from using it.

"A land use ordinance governs manufacturing and distribution,"
Semchena said. "In my mind it doesn't govern consumption of a
medication or marijuana. I think we can clear this up with language
that separates use from growing. We could make it clear that using
medical marijuana wouldn't violate the zoning ordinance, but growing
it, manufacturing it and distributing it would."

Semchena said he thinks the 12 plants allowed for each patient under
state law is too much, especially when they can be harvested several
times a year.

"You can't say it's for personal use when the quantity is that
large," Semchena said. "That's the dilemma. Every parent should be
concerned. I think Royal Oak would be a magnet for people who see
those ads saying make $100,000 while you sleep. And, there would be
no way to track where these grow houses are and how many there are.
Look out your front door and up and down the street. With all the
foreclosed houses, odds are your kid will walk by a grow house on the
way to school."

The City Commission meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall,
211 E. Williams St. Public comment is at the beginning of the agenda,
but the discussion and possible action on the medical marijuana
moratorium is the 16th of 18 agenda items.