MARIJUANA ORDINANCE DEBATED

Proposed Marquette City Statute Meets Resistance at Public Hearing

MARQUETTE - Marquette city officials will tweak the city's proposed
medical marijuana dispensary ordinance after a number of citizens
said they had concerns with it.

At a public hearing Monday about half a dozen people spoke out about
the ordinance. Most of them said it was too restrictive.

"Your proposed ordinance seeks to make it more restrictive. It is
unenforceable. It is not in keeping with the wishes of this
community," said Marquette resident Brian Bloch. He said according to
voting records about 72 percent of the residents in the city voted in
favor of Michigan's Medical Marihuana Act in 2008.

Negaunee resident Stan Plis questioned the ordinance's rule that
dispensaries be 1,000 feet away from schools. He asked why the same
restriction does not apply to pharmacies.

"They're trying to do the same thing that I'm trying to accomplish.
Supply a need to a patient and do it legally," he said.

Kurt Szyszkoski said the ordinance does not do enough to
differentiate between a small-scale caregiver and a large-scale dispensary.

"A primary caregiving facility, just looking at the definitions in
this draft ordinance, could be as little as one person growing for
their disabled father who is a Vietnam veteran. This ordinance would
require that person to rent a commercial facility. All the security,
the cameras and everything. That's completely unreasonable for one
person to do it if they're operating for nonprofit reasons," he said.

Marquette City Commission member Don Ryan said city officials are not
trying to be more restrictive than they have to be. He said they are
trying to provide a safe way for medical marijuana patients to
receive marijuana under the state law while also protecting the
interests of the rest of the citizens of the city.

"The vast majority of residents in Marquette will not be using
medical marijuana and I think they are concerned with how this is
going to impact their community. Not to stand in the way of people
who are approved by the state to use it but marijuana is still a drug
as far as the federal government is concerned. Any time you have
drugs, you have crime, you have a lot of issues so we have to make
some reasonable restrictions to protect a lot of other people in our
community," he said.

Commissioner Johnny DePetro said the ordinance is not perfect. He
suggested city officials look at medical marijuana ordinances from
other municipalities like Ann Arbor, when revising its ordinance.

"It wouldn't hurt us at all to go back, get some guidelines from
these other, more experienced, educated communities and work with
that," he said.

Commissioner Jason Schneider agreed the ordinance needed more work.

"If we're getting these statements here tonight from potential
business owners and current caregivers I think there are definitely
some issues that we missed," he said.

City staff will revise the ordinance between now and another public
hearing at the city's regular meeting Monday.

According to the ordinance, caregivers would have to apply for a
dispensary license from the city clerk. The initial application fee,
renewal fees and cultivation fees will be determined by a resolution
of the city commission and be established by an annual budget resolution.

The license would allow city officials to conduct routine inspections
of the dispensary or primary care operation. Dispensaries would not
be allowed to operate between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. and must be located
outside of a 1,000-foot radius from any school - including any
licensed facility with after-school programs - child care centers or
daycare centers.

No more than five primary caregivers may operate from a dispensary
and all medical marijuana must be contained in an enclosed, locked
facility accessible only by the registered caregivers. The dispensary
must also have security cameras and lighting to monitor all areas of
the premises.