Pubdate: Wed, 01 Aug 2012
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Copyright: 2012 The Detroit News
Contact:  http://www.detroitnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/126
Author: Chad Livengood

APPEALS COURT BLOCKS ORDINANCES THAT BAN MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROWING

Lansing- Municipalities cannot enact ordinances that criminalize
medical marijuana patients' lawful use of the drug, according to a
Michigan Court of Appeals ruling issued Wednesday.

A three-judge panel overturned an ordinance enacted by the city of
Wyoming - a Grand Rapids suburb - that sought to regulate cultivation
of medical marijuana under federal prohibitions against manufacturing
and distributing cannabis.

"Defendant's ordinance is void and unenforceable to the extent that it
purports to sanction the medical use of marijuana in conformity with
the" Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, appeals judges Joel P. Hoekstra,
Douglas B. Shapiro and William C. Whitbeck wrote in their opinion
handed down Tuesday and released Wednesday.

John Ter Beek, a 60-year-old diabetic from Wyoming, has been a
registered medical marijuana patient since May 2009 and grows his own
cannabis at home as permitted under the law. He sued to challenge a
Wyoming city ordinance implemented in November 2010 that made
marijuana cultivation a zoning violation.

The appellate court ruled the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act gives
qualified patients immunity from municipal zoning sanctions. The
judges also concluded the state medical marijuana law's limited
immunity for patients does not interfere with federal enforcement of
controlled substances laws.

The ruling could have broad implications for communities seeking to
regulate medical marijuana growing and distribution through zoning
ordinances in the on going legal battles over the 2008 voter-enacted
law.

"It will keep other communities from banning medical marijuana," Ter
Beek told The Detroit News. "Which I'm sure there are some very
conservative communities that would have had I not won."

The ACLU of Michigan, which took on Ter Beek's case, is challenging
similar ordinances in Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia.

"This really will put an end to those ordinances, as well," said Dan
Korobkin, staff attorney with the ACLU of Michigan. "The Court of
Appeals decision yesterday is a major victory for medical marijuana
patients all over Michigan."
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MAP posted-by: Matt