PART OF THE MIX

New Ordinance Allows Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in Parts of East Lansing

For Ben Richards, the medical marijuana ordinance passed by the East
Lansing City Council last week was more than just a routine decision.

Richards, a human biology junior, said chronic back pain from a
spinal fusion surgery in 2007 is the clinical reason behind his
medical marijuana use. He is just one of the people who will be
affected by the ordinance, which allows for medical marijuana
dispensaries in certain parts of East Lansing. Now that the ordinance
has passed, city officials and residents are discussing how it might
be implemented.

"The proximity to the dispensaries and a start or baseline of
legality that allows me to have some rights would be (a positive),"
Richards said.

An Ordinance Enacted

At its March 15 meeting, council decided to suspend a moratorium
formerly in place upon commercial medical marijuana distribution in
East Lansing and enact an ordinance allowing dispensaries in specific
locations of the city.

The ordinance officially allows medical marijuana to be dispersed
from dispensaries run by up to five licensed caregivers, Assistant
City Attorney Tom Yeadon said.

He said dispensaries in East Lansing would be subject to other
restrictions under the ordinance, such as zoning location, a 500-foot
distance requirement between dispensaries and a 1,000-foot distance
requirement away from schools.

Ken Van Every, owner of Compassionate Apothecary of Lansing, a
medical marijuana dispensary with more than 50 caregivers serving
about 700 people, said putting a limit on caregivers is not
beneficial to the patients who use the medicine.

"The patient (would be) very, very limited on what they have the
option of buying," Van Every said.

Education

Now that an ordinance has been put in place, it's important for the
city to continue working with it and make sure it makes sense for
East Lansing, Councilmember Nathan Triplett said. He said he'd like
to meet with other municipalities across the East Lansing borders
that have different policies in terms of medical marijuana distribution.

Triplett said although the ordinance is not perfect, it probably will
be a feasible solution for the commercial distribution of medical
marijuana in the city.

For people who typically grow their own medical marijuana such as
Richards, though, the ordinance won't have much effect on their
day-to-day life. Although he said the ordinance likely would promote
crucial understanding of the medicine within the community.

"It's the uneducated that are making the statements that (medical
marijuana is) a menace to the society," Richards said.

Opposition

Though the ordinance has some supporters in the city, the decision
did not come without opposition.

Some residents still were concerned with the supposed incompleteness
of the document, East Lansing resident Don Power said at council's
March 15 meeting.

"In our view, you have the framework to work within, but you're not
done," he said.

Choosing only B4 districts - restricted zoning districts in East
Lansing primarily reserved for office and medical use in areas around
Lake Lansing Road, Coolidge Road, Abbot Road - could be viewed as a
form of restrictive zoning, said Jeffrey Hank, an East Lansing
attorney. Hank, who said he wanted dispensaries to be allowed in
retail zoning areas as well, said the patients were being
inconvenienced by the restriction of this ordinance.

"Very few locations are actually available there ... (and) a lot of
the landlords in that area don't want dispensaries opening in their
building," Hank said. "The city is standing in between patients and
their medicine."

Council also was divided slightly on the issue. East Lansing Mayor
Vic Loomis - the only council member who voted against the passage of
the ordinance - said more time should have been taken to work out
issues with the ordinance before passing it.

"I have yet to have a single person put any pressure (on council to
push forward with an ordinance)," Loomis said in the March 15
meeting. "Surrounding jurisdictions are backtracking (in terms of
medical marijuana ordinances)."

A Medical Use

Staton said the B4 district was chosen because in the city's
interpretation of the ordinance, medical marijuana is a medicine and
should be treated in that manner.

"The B4 zone allows for office uses because the law makes medical
marijuana a medical use - it's being treated as a medical use (in the
ordinance)," Staton said. "We don't think that means a storefront dispensary."

The zoning district might not be the perfect district to place
medical marijuana operations, but likely is the best decision for the
city at this point in time, Staton said.

Van Every said he wouldn't choose to start a business that wasn't a
storefront because of the competition from other dispensaries in the area.

"I don't think you'd be able to be competitive and be able to grow
your business without exposure," Van Every said.

Long Time Coming

Although some Michigan cities chose to ban medical marijuana outright
or ignore the issue of regulation, city officials took considerable
time discussing and planning out a course of action for the issue,
making a decision to enact the ordinance after nearly seven months of
deliberation, Triplett said.

Zach Jarou, scientific director at Cannalytics, a cannabis testing
laboratory, said the city took a positive step forward with the
ordinance and he was impressed with the way council studied and
discussed the issue for several months before coming to a decision.

"Many (council members) probably weren't aware of how complicated the
issue was initially they did a pretty good job," Jarou said.