Pubdate: Fri, 6 Aug 2010
Source: Daily Tribune, The (Royal Oak, MI)
Copyright: 2010 The Daily Tribune
Contact:  http://www.dailytribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1579
Author: Catherine Kavanaugh, Daily Tribune Staff Writer
Cited: Chuck Semchena 
http://www.ci.royal-oak.mi.us/portal/departments/city-commission/commissioner-semchena
Cited: City Commissioners 
http://www.ci.royal-oak.mi.us/portal/departments/city-commission/
Referenced: Michigan's law http://drugsense.org/url/8mvr7sW8
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Royal+Oak
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

DOWNTOWN DISPENSARY SEEKS EXEMPTION FROM BAN

Medical Marijuana Outlet Proposed for Patients, Caregivers

ROYAL OAK -- The city will set a hearing date for a second business 
requesting an exemption to the temporary ban on medical marijuana 
dispensaries and growing operations.

The applicants want to start a company called Mary Jane's Flowers -- 
no tie to the floral gift shops in Royal Oak and Ferndale with a 
similar name -- that would sell medical marijuana to qualified 
patients and caregivers.

The business would be located by Metals in Time, which is at the 
southwest corner of Main and Fourth streets, according to Jalal J. 
Dallo, a Troy attorney representing himself and his partner, Angela Shafou.

"It's going to be a place where patients with cards can enter or 
caregivers for patients and purchase medical marijuana and ways to 
ingest it," Dallo said, referring to options such as smoking and 
eating. "The store will offer a holistic way to get better instead of 
popping pills."

Medical marijuana relieves pain, nausea and vomiting, and increases 
the appetite of patients with cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis. 
Ferndale has a dispensary called Clinical Relief on Hilton Road just 
north of Eight Mile Road.

However, Royal Oak, which had 20 inquiries to its Planning Department 
early this year, enacted a six-month moratorium on all the business 
proposals. Even though the moratorium expires in late October, Dallo 
said the ban is creating an economic hardship for the landlord, the 
prospective business associates and even the city.

"We're talking about two more months where the city could collect 
taxes and increase tourism," Dallo said. "Curious people are going to 
come to see this business and then they will do things in Royal Oak."

City Commissioner Chuck Semchena is concerned about what else 
businesses related to medical marijuana might attract. He invited 
Robert L. Corso, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency to 
make a presentation at the beginning of Monday's meeting called 
"Rising crime rates and Michigan's new marihuana law." (The state law 
refers to cannabis used for medical purposes as marihuana.)

Semchena also is urging city officials to consider a permanent ban on 
medical marijuana businesses by passing an ordinance that prohibits 
any business in violation of federal law, which makes marijuana 
possession a crime.

Semchena also opposes exemptions for Mary Jane's Flowers and an empty 
warehouse on Torquay Avenue, which a prospective tenant wants to 
divide into locked spaces for 25 different growers.

"They're going to have to show hardships that can only be cured by 
growing marijuana immediately," Semchena said.

The landlord of the 23,000-square foot warehouse is getting his 
hearing Monday. He has the industrial space has been on the market 
for two years and he will lose it to foreclosure if can't rent it.

Semchena said the property was listed with a real estate agent for 
about $990,000.

"I'm sure if he lowered the price he could sell it," Semchena said.

Mary Jane Flowers wants to locate near the recently opened Michigan 
Medical Marijuana Patient ID Center, which is on the second floor of 
a Fourth Street office building downtown. Since April the staff has 
been telling potential patients how to get state ID cards and advises 
caregivers about their rights. The business didn't need any special 
approval to open and the moratorium doesn't apply to it.

Dallo said the moratorium shouldn't apply to Mary Jane's Flowers either.

"Michigan law says medical marijuana is allowed. Who are they to ban 
it?" he asked.

Moratorium violates rights of patients to obtain medical marijuana 
without fear of prosecution, caregivers to assist them and property 
owners and business owners, Dallo said.

"This law was designed to be implemented," he says in a letter to the 
city commission requesting an exemption. The city of Royal Oak's 
position to take a wait-and-see approach is a pragmatic and sound 
approach, however the law has been effective for two years."

Mary Jane's Flowers will be a cooperative business and good neighbor, 
Dallo added.

"We will run everything we do before this honorable commission first," he said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake