Pubdate: Wed, 5 Jan 2011
Source: Holland Sentinel (MI)
Copyright: 2011 GateHouse Media, Inc.
Contact: http://extra.hollandsentinel.com/submitletter.shtml
Website: http://www.hollandsentinel.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1145
Author: Andrea Goodell, The Holland Sentinel
Cited: Holland Township 
http://www.hct.holland.mi.us/elected-a-appointed/elected-officials
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Holland+Township

TOWNSHIP CONTINUES MARIJUANA DEBATE

Holland, MI -- Holland Township is inching forward with no solution 
imminent on medical marijuana regulations.

The planning commission continues to discuss a proposed ordinance 
that would require caregivers to register and bar storefront 
businesses. The ordinance was created in response to a medical 
marijuana dispensary in the township. As written, the proposal would 
put Patient Solutions 420 out of business, representatives from the 
business say.

"A lot of folks have put pressure on us saying we've got to get rid 
of this, and I'm not convinced we need to do that just yet," Township 
Planning and Zoning Administrator Jon Mersman said of Patient Solutions 420.

The East Eighth Street business offers patients "safe, reliable 
access to medicine" as well as certification services and operates 
based on "patient-to-patient transfers."

The debate is whether the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, which 
passed nearly three years ago with a public referendum, allows 
patient-to-patient transfers.

The state law's broad definition of medical use allows the transfers, 
said attorney Thomas Lavigne with Cannabis Counsel of Detroit.

"If it were to go forward like it is right now, yes, we would have 
major problems with it," he said of the proposed ordinance.

He calls it discrimination against people with disabilities. The 
township, Lavigne said, cannot tell patients what kind of medicine to 
take to alleviate their symptoms.

"The way I read the law and the way our lawyers have read the law ... 
these dispensaries or clubs or collectives are really not provided 
for under the current Michigan Medical Marijuana law," Mersman said. 
"We have the responsibility to decide if we want to look the other 
way, which we could, which we have for a while. Or, we have the 
responsibility to look at the Michigan Medical Marijuana says."

Holland Township officials plan to ask the county prosecutor's office 
his opinion on the legality of dispensaries.  
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake