Pubdate: Thu, 6 Jan 2011
Source: Daily Telegram, The (Adrain, MI)
Copyright: 2011 GateHouse Media, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.lenconnect.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1556
Author: John Mulcahy, Daily Telegram
Cited: Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings Michigan Medical 
Marijuana rules http://mapinc.org/url/wkh4gDRm
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA ZONING PROPOSED

ADRIAN, Mich. - The Adrian Planning Commission hammered out a 
proposed zoning ordinance Tuesday to regulate medical marijuana 
distribution facilities in the city.

The proposed ordinance will be the subject of a public hearing at the 
commission's next meeting, Feb. 1, after which the commission could 
vote to recommend it to the Adrian City Commission.

The city commission would have to approve the ordinance for it to become law.

The proposed ordinance would limit medical marijuana distribution 
facilities to B-2 business districts and require a zoning exception permit.

Parts of North Main Street, South Main Street and Beecher Street are 
areas that contain B-2 districts.

Under the proposed ordinance, no more than one caregiver as defined 
by Michigan's Medical Marijuana Act could use a facility. That means 
that no more than five medical marijuana patients could use a given 
facility, since state law limits caregivers to a maximum of five patients.

No medical marijuana facility would be allowed within 1,000 feet of 
another medical marijuana facility. Medical marijuana facilities also 
could not be within 500 feet of a church, school, park or playground, 
licensed day care facility or residentially zoned district.

Smells, noises or other nuisances that might be connected to the 
growing of medical marijuana could not extend beyond the facility's property.

Finally, any existing medical marijuana facilities in the city would 
not be "grandfathered" under the law, meaning they would have to meet 
the one caregiver provision and the B-2 zoning district provision.

Adrian has two known medical marijuana facilities, one in the 200 
block of North Winter Street and one in the 100 block of West Maumee Street.

Michigan's medical marijuana law, approved by voters in 2008, allows 
certified patients having certain debilitating medical conditions to 
grow and use a limited amount of marijuana. Registered medical 
marijuana caregivers are allowed to grow a limited number of 
marijuana plants and distribute marijuana to not more than five patients.

Caregivers may be compensated for costs associated with giving care 
to registered medical marijuana patients, according to the website of 
the Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules. Such 
compensation does not constitute selling a controlled substance, the 
website says.

According to the website of the Michigan Department of Community 
Health, which administers the medical marijuana law, there is no 
place in Michigan where marijuana can be legally purchased.

During their meeting Tuesday, planning commission members debated 
whether medical marijuana facilities should be permitted as home 
businesses in residential districts as opposed to being in allowed in 
business districts.

Commission member Chuck Jacobson initially took the position that the 
facilities should be permitted as delivery-only home businesses and 
be restricted to one caregiver.

"I think you can police it better in a residential (district)," Jacobson said.

Commission member Mike Clegg, who also sits on the city commission, disagreed.

"You think you're controlling it, but you've lost all control once it 
goes into a residential district," Clegg said.

Commissioners also debated whether the facilities should be allowed 
to operate as cooperatives with many caregivers - and hence many 
patients - or whether they should be restricted to one or two caregivers.

The question was whether severely restricting the number of 
caregivers in a facility would leave the city open to the charge of 
effectively prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries.

"That means you're going to be in a commercial district and you can 
have at most five customers," commission chairman Mike Jacobitz said.

In the end, all the commission members voted to proceed to the public 
hearing with an ordinance restricting the facilities to the B-2 
business districts and restricting them to one caregiver per facility.

Last month, the city commission imposed a 120-day moratorium on any 
new medical marijuana facilities in the city while the planning 
commission and city commission worked on a zoning ordinance 
regulating the facilities.  
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake