Lansing bans pot dispensaries for six months

The Lansing City Council capped months of debate and division by voting unanimously Monday night to freeze the approval of new medical marijuana dispensaries until July 1, 2011.

The vote came after a host of citizens — many of them medical marijuana dispensary owners — spoke to the council about the proposed moratorium. Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero weighed in, via letter read by his chief of staff Jerry Ambrose. Bernero said he opposed the moratorium, saying he thought it “only serves to thwart the intent of voters” who approved marijuana for medical use in 2008.

Last week, council members had a heated exchange over the proposal, with some saying they would not support it. They echoed the concerns of Bernero.

But Carol Wood, chair of the public safety committee of the council, says the temporary moratorium is a way to create a safe, uniform program to allow patients to access medical marijuana in the city.

Sitting in her office before the vote, a four inch thick binder labeled medical marijuana resource book, Wood explained why the council began looking at the issue in February.

“We were hoping the rules (from Michigan Department of Community Health) would give us a clearer understanding,” says Wood. That clarity, she said, never came. As a result, Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III approached the council with concerns about problems in the law’s implementation.

Wood said Dunnings saw no legal basis for dispensaries.

The Public Safety Committee wanted to bring the issue forward, but City Attorney Brigham Smith was not sold on the idea of a moratorium, Wood said. After months of meetings, and research, the moratorium was drafted. It came only after the city developed an ordinance regulating the sale of medical marijuana from people’s homes.

The issue is key, she said, to showing the city was working with regional partners. Nearly every municipality in the area had approved some form of moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries while each works towards rules and regulations.

Wood said the moratorium was important from an economic development view.

“People were starting to invest in these, and if we passed regulations that effected the size or location of their store, that business owner could incur more monetary or economic issues for their business,” she said.

The moratorium approved by council Monday night grandfathers in an estimated 60 dispensaries already operating in the city.

Councilmember Tina Houghton, who last week had expressed opposition to the moratorium, changed her mind after surveying several dispensaries over the weekend, she said.

“After visiting several establishments this weekend, I have to concede I really have no idea what this medical marijuana is all about,” Houghton said. After explaining what she saw during her tours which included the various growing techniques, specialized strains of marijuana and more, she said she was convinced it was a medical issue. “This is truly an alternative medication to help people with chronic pain and illness.”

As for the businesses, Houghton says she saw people who wanted to succeed and assist people, and recognized the need for a workable set of rules to protect the viability of those operations.

“They don’t want neon signs that say ‘we’re open for robbery,’ or ‘criminal activities,’” Houghton said.