TOWNSHIP CONTINUES MARIJUANA DEBATE

Holland, MI -- Holland Township is inching forward with no solution
imminent on medical marijuana regulations.

The planning commission continues to discuss a proposed ordinance
that would require caregivers to register and bar storefront
businesses. The ordinance was created in response to a medical
marijuana dispensary in the township. As written, the proposal would
put Patient Solutions 420 out of business, representatives from the
business say.

"A lot of folks have put pressure on us saying we've got to get rid
of this, and I'm not convinced we need to do that just yet," Township
Planning and Zoning Administrator Jon Mersman said of Patient Solutions 420.

The East Eighth Street business offers patients "safe, reliable
access to medicine" as well as certification services and operates
based on "patient-to-patient transfers."

The debate is whether the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, which
passed nearly three years ago with a public referendum, allows
patient-to-patient transfers.

The state law's broad definition of medical use allows the transfers,
said attorney Thomas Lavigne with Cannabis Counsel of Detroit.

"If it were to go forward like it is right now, yes, we would have
major problems with it," he said of the proposed ordinance.

He calls it discrimination against people with disabilities. The
township, Lavigne said, cannot tell patients what kind of medicine to
take to alleviate their symptoms.

"The way I read the law and the way our lawyers have read the law ...
these dispensaries or clubs or collectives are really not provided
for under the current Michigan Medical Marijuana law," Mersman said.
"We have the responsibility to decide if we want to look the other
way, which we could, which we have for a while. Or, we have the
responsibility to look at the Michigan Medical Marijuana says."

Holland Township officials plan to ask the county prosecutor's office
his opinion on the legality of dispensaries.