ACLU MAY FIGHT WYOMING MEDICAL MARIJUANA BAN

WYOMING - Having already sued three Michigan cities for banning
medical marijuana, the American Civil Liberties Union now might get
involved in a case in Kent County.

The ACLU met recently with John Ter Beek, a retired attorney and
marijuana patient who sued Wyoming after the City Council enacted a
ban last month on medicinal use of the drug. The council unanimously
reaffirmed that decision last week.

"We have been in talks with Mr. Ter Beek, but at this time, I would
say that it's premature to say that we're involved," said Rana Elmir,
a spokeswoman for the ACLU's Michigan affiliate in Detroit.

"We're researching the issue, and we'll make a decision (on
participating) probably within a week."

The ACLU has sued Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia for
approving laws that ban medical marijuana, arguing that their
ordinances "cannot flout state law," Elmir said. Wyoming's ordinance
outlaws medical marijuana and anything else that violates federal law.

Ter Beek, a former Godfrey-Lee Board of Education member, has claimed
that's an errant basis because the federal government has agreed to
not prosecute medical marijuana users who comply with state laws.

He threatened to attempt a recall of the entire Wyoming council after
Monday's unanimous vote in support of the ban, but he said the ACLU
has since advised him to step aside from that effort.

The ACLU's suit against the three Detroit-area cities, filed on
behalf of a Birmingham couple, seeks to invalidate the local
ordinances banning medical marijuana. Linda Lott, who has multiple
sclerosis, and her husband, Robert, who has glaucoma, want to use
marijuana at their home and at a private social club in Bloomfield
Hills, and they want to grow the plant in a vacant warehouse they own
in Livonia, according to the suit.

Jack Sluiter, Wyoming city attorney, said the ACLU sent him a copy of
that suit before last week's final council vote. He said Friday that
the city was in the process of filing a response to Ter Beek's suit.

Wyoming officials said they voted for the ban because they feel
marijuana can be distributed safely by pharmacists, not by licensed
marijuana caregivers as Michigan law allows.