ACLU APPEALS MEDICAL MARIJUANA RULING

The American Civil Liberties Union has appealed a Wayne County Circuit
Court ruling that supported the city of Livonia's ban on medical
marijuana facilities.

The ACLU of Michigan filed an appeal Monday with the Michigan Court of
Appeals and the city of Livonia received notice of the claim of appeal
Tuesday.

The ACLU is appealing the ruling by Circuit Judge Wendy Baxter, who
granted the city's motion for summary disposition last month. "We
think that she made a wrong decision," said Dan Korobkin, staff
attorney with the ACLU.

State law vs. federal law

At the heart of the case is whether the voter-approved state law
permitting medical marijuana use or sales pre-empts federal law
banning marijuana or whether the federal Controlled Substances Act
pre-empts state law.

The ACLU filed a suit in December on behalf of Linda and Robert Lott
of Birmingham against the cities of Livonia, Bloomfield Hills and
Birmingham regarding the authority of communities to prohibit medical
marijuana use or sales on the grounds that marijuana possession
violates federal law. The Lotts own a portion of a property in Livonia
where they said they wanted to grow medical marijuana, according to
the ACLU. The ACLU argued in court that Livonia could not enact laws
that violate state laws.

Michigan voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 2008. The
city of Livonia later enacted an ordinance that did not mention
medical marijuana, but prohibited activities that violate federal law.

Linda Lott is a registered medical marijuana patient with multiple
sclerosis. She uses medical marijuana to get rid of back spasms.
Prescription drugs don't work on the pain, according to her husband
Robert.

Korobkin said the question was whether local governments had a right
to punish people who had the right to use medical marijuana, such as
the Lotts.

"The facts and the legal questions speak for themselves," Korobkin
said. "The Michigan Medical Marihuana Act says that someone who
engages in medical marijuana use can't be arrested, punished or
prosecuted in any way."

Korobkin said the Livonia ordinance allows the Lotts to be punished
and that state voters did not intend for that to happen when they
voted in 2008.

City will defend ordinance

Don Knapp, Livonia's city attorney, said he expected the appeal. "We
intend to vigorously defend the city's zoning ordinance," he said.
"The ACLU even agrees that pre-emption is the critical issue and the
federal law conflicts with the state law. You can't ask local
governments to be complicit in violating a federal law."

Korobkin said there is "no actual conflict" between the laws, but that
they "say two different things."

While the pre-emption is a separate issue, attorneys and medical
marijuana supporters and opponents are watching other legal
developments.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals
ruled that the law allowed the medical use of marijuana in limited
circumstances, but not the sale of it.

The court ordered that a Mt. Pleasant dispensary should be closed. The
dispensary was selling marijuana to people certified to buy it for
medical purposes.

The court ruled that the facility's operators have no authority under
the law to operate a dispensary that "actively engages in and carries
out patient-to-patient sales" of marijuana.

The legal discussions and arguments continue in California courts, a
state in which voters passed a medical marijuana initiative 15 years
ago.

A Superior Court judge in Orange County decided recently that
Anaheim's ban on dispensaries does not violate state law. The judge
concluded that neither the medical marijuana initiative passed by
voters in 1996 nor a state law that followed pre-empted local
ordinances intended to regulate the distribution of the drug.

That case is headed to the state Court of Appeal.