WAYLAND PASSES NEW MARIJUANA MORATORIUM

The Wayland City Council passed a yearlong moratorium on approving
land use requests related to medical marijuana.

Wayland city manager Chris Yonker said that the lack of clarity in
2008 Michigan Medical Marijuana Act made it difficult to know how to
regulate the use and distribution of medical marijuana.

The courts have yet to clear the matter up, Yonker
said.

"There haven't been any court cases that have made it to the court of
appeals or the Supreme Court and that's where this thing will be
sorted out," he said.

The city did not have any policies dealing with medical marijuana
prior to the resolution passing.

The city may still act on the law during the course of the year, he
said. Any new regulations would render the current moratorium void.

Yonker said the city opted for a yearlong moratorium, instead of a
six-month moratorium, because many of the communities that had passed
the shorter ones have had to renew their moratorium for a second
period of six moths.

Wayland joins the cities of Plainwell and Allegan, as well as Otsego
and Gun Plain Townships in passing moratoriums on approving medical
marijuana land use requests.

Michigan voters legalized possession and cultivation of limited
amounts of marijuana for medical use in 2008. It remains illegal under
federal law for any purpose and state officials have complained about
several provisions of the law that they say make it vague.