CORUNNA APPROVES MEDICAL MARIJUANA ORDINANCE

CORUNNA -- City residents will be able to grow medical marijuana
within their homes as home-based businesses.

City Council unanimously approved an ordinance allowing such
businesses Monday night.

"For the planning commission, this has been one year of review and a
lot of research done on medical marijuana and how it fits in the
community and the regulations, if any, we wanted to do on it,"
Assessor Merilee Lawson said.

The ordinance will give all basic rules and regulations to those who
are "primary caregivers" and to those who are "qualifying patients,"
she said.

The ordinance allows medical marijuana caregivers to have up to five
patients and grow up to 12 plants for each patient, but the ordinance
requires the growth of marijuana to take place within the caregiver's
main home with no change to the exterior.

In addition, the medical marijuana plants must not be visible from
outside, grow lights must not be visible from exterior of the house
and locks must be on the structure holding the marijuana, along with
other regulations, Lawson said.

In addition, patients may grow marijuana only for themselves,

"The planning commission felt the intent of the act was to absolutely
allow people who had a need for medical marijuana to be able to grow
it or get it," Lawson said. "But there is some regulation on it."

Licensing requirements in the city require the location of the
caregiver be declared, but because they are medical marijuana sites,
names of the people residing at the growing location cannot be asked,
by law.

Council member Mike Sarrazin questioned how the city was going to be
able to keep the caregivers' names secret if they have a license with
their address on it.

"Laws are challenging to enforce sometimes," City Manager Joe Sawyer
said.

Lawson said the planning commission looked at about 50 different
ordinances from across the state of Michigan, and had about 10
different options.

"This was not an easy decision to come to," she said. "We felt this
was absolutely the best way to allow someone to do something that's
allowed in the law, but also try the best we can to make sure we
protect the welfare of the public."

The ordinance is very thorough, Sawyer said.

"The planning commission should be commended for the work they did,"
he said.