cannabisnews.com: Metro Detroit Communities Sued Over Medical Pot
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Metro Detroit Communities Sued Over Medical Pot
Posted by CN Staff on February 07, 2011 at 09:14:23 PT
By Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
Source: Detroit Free Press 
Michigan -- Community officials across the region have spent countless hours in the last year debating how to regulate medical marijuana. Now, some are spending legal fees defending lawsuits.Royal Oak, whose ban on growing medical marijuana starts today, was sued last week, and another lawsuit is expected to be filed against the city this week. Also sued recently by medical-marijuana patients in metro Detroit were Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Bloomfield Township, Livonia and Lyon Township.
"This is going to keep happening, and we're going to spend legal fees while we're laying off police officers," Royal Oak City Commissioner Jim Rasor said.Rasor said the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act "is perfectly clear" in establishing Michiganders' rights to use, grow and distribute medical marijuana. But he was in the minority of the 4-3 vote on the city's ordinance change, passed last month, to ban growing medical marijuana in Royal Oak.After dozens of citizens signed a petition asking for a complete ban on the drug, city commissioners sided with allowing its use but banning its cultivation, saying that the state law voters passed in 2008 was vague and could lead to drug dealing in the city.Michigan's new attorney general, Bill Schuette, said through a spokesman last week that he agreed."The law is an absolute disaster," Schuette spokesman John Selleck said. "It has created the No. 1 growth industry in Michigan, but these are not the kind of jobs we need. Our attorneys are looking at the issue right now to determine the best ways the law could be clarified."It's too soon to say when the attorney general might issue an opinion on medical marijuana, he said. Such an opinion would not be binding on the courts, but it would help guide community leaders on the issue, Royal Oak City Attorney Dave Gillam said.Gillam said he and the city's planning director hope to resolve a mushrooming legal quandary with their ordinance change: whether residents who are state-approved patients can continue to grow the drug in their homes and be grandfathered in to the new city zoning amendment, if they've grown the drug before, Gillam said.Royal Oak officials admitted that they failed to anticipate the problem of grandfathering existing growers, who are guaranteed confidentiality by the state Medical Marijuana Act, Grosse Pointe attorney Paul Tylenda said.He represents Steven Greene, a resident of Lyon Township, who filed a lawsuit last month against the community to challenge its total ban on medical marijuana use, Tylenda said.Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)Author: Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press Staff WriterPublished: February 7, 2011Copyright: 2011 Detroit Free PressWebsite: http://www.freep.com/Contact: letters freepress.comURL: http://drugsense.org/url/2QLlg8XwCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on February 07, 2011 at 20:27:55 PT
Sam Adams
Interesting that you should mention Marie Antoinette and the quote she is infamous for. She and that quote have come to mind rather often lately, reading some of the things the prohibitionists are letting get out of their mouths these days.It still amazes me that prohibs can imagine something so wondrous as the cannabis plant is so scary bad that people should be endlessly persecuted over the use or possession of it.
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Comment #2 posted by Fight_4_freedom on February 07, 2011 at 16:27:25 PT
Exactly Sam
He just said it right there. No 1. Growth Industry in Michigan. Thousands of jobs have already been created due to our new law, many of which are not exactly legit and legal yet, but if the state would work with us, they would be. And there are thousands more to give out after that.
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on February 07, 2011 at 09:52:05 PT
his view
"The law is an absolute disaster," Schuette spokesman John Selleck said. "It has created the No. 1 growth industry in Michigan, but these are not the kind of jobs we need."Obviously he's already got a job! and one with retirement pay & health care till death to boot.interesting to me that they don't avoid the biggest pitfall of their strategy (crushed economy due to various Prohibitions) - they actually focus on it and keep spouting the 1984ish propaganda.I wonder if it actually convinces people, or if it just enforces the perception that the govt. and upper class are so powerful that even logic holds no sway with them. the message: resistance is futile. Our thugs can arrest another 800,000 per year if we want.And the people want "jobs"...this guy's comment is just like "let them eat cake" from Marie Antoinette. We KNOW you want jobs and we want YOU to know that WE don't care! That's what Mr. Schuette is saying.
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