New state laws permitting medical marijuana dispensaries take effect Dec. 20, but local officials said it will be longer than that before they open in their towns.
Local municipalities may choose to ban or to allow dispensaries, and may regulate their number and location under the new laws.
“Even if I have language ready today, it’s still a three-month process,” Fort Gratiot Supervisor Jorja Baldwin said.
Baldwin said the Fort Gratiot board may address dispensary regulations, but not likely before January – when they have time for “a legitimate work of the language.”
In theory, she said, the township could use local zoning language developed several years ago to cover marijuana dispensaries. She said the ordinance process, which includes going through the township’s planning and the county’s metro planning commissions, would take more time.
Last week, Gov. Rick Snyder signed a package of bills into law to fine-tune the state’s regulatory framework, more clearly specify terms of use and pot products, set up a tracking system, and introduce a tax on dispensaries.
Officials around St. Clair County still aren’t sure how or when they’ll re-approach the subject. Algonac, Fort Gratiot and Marine City had temporarily prohibited dispensaries while waiting for the state to pass the bills.
In Marine City, where the latest moratorium ends in mid-October, City Manager Elaine Leven said “it’s perfect timing” to discuss the subject.
She expects it to come up at the Oct. 6 City Commission meeting, but she isn’t making a specific recommendation and she speculated officials wouldn’t make any decisions.
“It’ll really just be a recap of the law what it means for the community and what we could potentially do …” Leven said. “What I’ve seen based on the (laws), it’s more permissive for the communities should they (want to) regulate them. It’s not something where time is of the essence.”
They laws signed last week take effect on Dec. 20.
House Bill 4209 created the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act to regulate growers, processors, transporters, dispensaries and safety compliance facilities, as well as a state board to oversee operation; HB 4210 amended the existing state marijuana act to regulate infused products, including lotions and other medicines, for patients who don’t want to smoke or consume pot; and HB 4827 started the Marihuana Tracking Act, opening an Internet monitoring system through the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.
Marine City’s six-month moratorium, which was approved by officials in April, wasn’t the city’s first.
Algonac, too, has had a series of moratorium extensions since 2015, when the city received an inquiry about opening a dispensary.
City Clerk Cindi Greenia also expected the dispensary question to be addressed soon, though she also wasn’t sure when that would be. City Manager Doug Alexander, who Greenia said “is very thorough in checking everything” before discussions, couldn’t be immediately reached Wednesday.
Ira Township officials last spring had instructed planning commissioners to explore the idea of a pot ordinance.
Officials in Port Huron Township got a little further with an ordinance that treated medical marijuana like an adult use – similarly to smoke shops, cabarets or adult theaters.
The effort emerged after a special land use inquiry last year. That request ultimately went away, but township planning commissioners recommended passing the ordinance before it was sent to the county.
Now, however, Kirk Lavigne, Port Huron Township’s building official and zoning administrator, said officials are looking to have the township’s planning commission discuss it again instead of sending it to the board of trustees.
That means rehearing and republishing the proposed pot ordinance.
“They’re saying if you don’t do anything, you don’t have to have that be allowed in your municipal boundaries,” Lavigne said of the state law. “… I’m hoping we can get on the November agenda.”
Also under the new laws, dispensaries would be taxed 3 percent of their gross receipts, and if local governments decide to regulate them, they could require licensees pay a fee of up to $5,000 a year to help with oversight costs.
Leven said it was an interesting part of the regulation that could “be very lucrative to help police departments,” but also “could wind up canceling it out.”
St. Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon said that local law enforcement wouldn’t stand to gain too much financially.
He said he was glad law enforcement had a seat at the table in developing laws that put transparency, local control and regulations in check. The act developed after the 2008 voter referendum, he said, didn’t do that, leaving police guessing what was legal and what wasn’t.
“The state didn’t handle this appropriately from the get-go,” he said. “Now at least, there is some rhyme or reason to what was put out there, and it gives us a playbook.”
There are no dispensaries currently in the county.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Officials May Re-Examine Local Medical Pot Laws
Author: Jackie Smith
Contact: (810) 985-7171
Photo Credit: Jeffrey Smith
Website: The Times Herlad