Friday, December 3, 2010

What the future may hold for Medical Marijuana in Michigan

It is unquestionable that medical marijuana in Michigan will remain legal throughout the 2010 election season. It is also widely believed that medical marijuana in Michigan will continue to be legal for the short-term immediate future. However, while the State of California will vote on November 2, 2010 as to whether or not to make recreational marijuana usage legal, the state of Michigan is voting on new procedures to restrict the future usage and rights of medical marijuana users and medical marijuana cards in Michigan. The state of Michigan’s approach to its self-proclaimed “problem” with medical marijuana seems to be to add more government and more rules for it to have to interpret and enforce.

The first proposal that Michigan medical marijuana opponents are endorsing is the idea of medical marijuana zones. The idea of zoning will work this way:

In regards to location:

There will be no medical marijuana dispensaries located on a piece of property that is within 200 feet of a residential district, and shall be located only in downtown, light industrial and commercial zoning districts.

No medical marijuana dispensary shall be established within 500 feet of another medical marijuana dispensary.

No medical marijuana dispensary shall be located within 1,000 feet of a public school.

Regarding the use of medical marijuana dispensaries:

No person shall reside in or permit any person to reside in the premises of a medical marijuana dispensary.

No person operating a medical marijuana dispensary shall permit any person under the age of 18 to be on the premises.

The operator of a medical marijuana dispensary must be a registered caregiver.

No person shall become the lessee or sub-lessee of any property for the purpose of using said property for a medical marijuana dispensary without the express written permission of the owner of the property for such use and a zoning compliance permit from the city of Ann Arbor.

In downtown zoning districts, medical marijuana may be dispensed, but not grown.

Odors may not leave the unit occupied by the medical marijuana dispensary.

No drive-through windows are allowed at a medical marijuana dispensary.

No on-site smoking or consumption is allowed at a medical marijuana dispensary.

Regarding medical marijuana as a “home occupation”:
One registered caregiver per single-family home is limited to providing medical marijuana to five patients. Caregivers may not give, sell, or otherwise transfer medical marijuana to anyone other than the five patients that have designated them as their caregiver through the Michigan Dept. of Community Health.

Caregivers must deliver to patients – no pickups are allowed from a caregiver’s house.

An annual zoning compliance permit is required.

Odors may not leave the property.

Other restrictions:
Other restrictions include proposals to limit convicted felons from obtaining or dispensing medical marijuana, licensing by the state health department for all Michigan medical marijuana facilities that choose to cultivate medical marijuana in Michigan, limiting the number of medical marijuana growth facilities to 10 per year and the limiting of dispensing medical marijuana to licensed pharmacist.

This is not the state of medical marijuana cards and medical marijuana in Michigan today, but it could very well be its tomorrow. So while California (which borders a country that loses money, blood, and countless resources to a merciless drug war) continues to be forward-thinking and lean on the side of decriminalization and deregulation, Michigan appears to continue its quest to make marijuana the number one bootlegged drug within its state borders. To be continued…

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