[420 Girl]

The City of Ann Arbor approved a moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries on Thursday, following the lead of a number of other cities in the state including Ypsilanti and Saline which have sought to regulate these establishments under municipal zoning laws.

Here's a roundup of some relevant links to the regulation of medical marijuana, with special attention to the situation in the state of Colorado. Colorado has had legalized medical marijuana since voters passed a referendum in 2000, and some of the issues that we are bound to face here in Michigan have already showed up there.

State of Michigan overwhelmed with applications

The passage of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Initiative, Proposal 1 of 2008 unleashed a pent-up demand for legalized access to marijuana. The Michigan Department of Community Health is responsible for licensing and the issuance of registry identification cards, and its informational website for applications notes a backlog in account processing:

"At this time, we are unable to issue valid registry identification cards within the statutory time frame with the resources available to us. Currently staff is issuing registry identification cards for valid applications received mid-April. We continue to review and revise our processing methods in order to more efficiently process and issue the valid registry cards."

Local medical marijuana advocacy groups

The Ann Arbor Medical Marijuana Patient Collective, or A2M2PC, is one of the groups that mobilized public comment at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting on Thursday:

"Ann Arbor Medical Marijuana Patient Collective is an organization of patients, caregivers, medical doctors, attorneys, and concerned citizens working together to help patients receive fair and knowledgeable treatment under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act."

The Monroe Street Fair is an annual street fair on Monroe Street near the University of Michigan Law School, held each year immediately following the Hash Bash on a date near April 1.

No discussion of Ann Arbor marijuana would be complete without a reference to John Sinclair, who was imprisoned in 1969 after giving two joints of marijuana to an undercover narcotics officer. The movie Ten for Two: The John Sinclair Freedom Rally captures the 1971 concert at Crisler Arena that led to his release from Jackson Prison. The John and Leni Sinclair Papers, 1957-1999 are held at the Bentley Historical Library, with 76 boxes of materials chronicling the era. Box 46 has many of the materials from the Free John Now campaign.

The situation in Colorado

The state of Colorado has a Colorado Medical Marijuana Registry. It was put into place after the November 2000 general election, when Colorado voters passed Amendment 20.

Since then, medical marijuana has been a growth business in Colorado. This 2009 Denver Westword News story on Cannabis Therapeutics in Colorado Springs said:

"Lee has signed contracts with seven Colorado growers — all legal under Amendment 20, he promises, because they're registered caregivers for some of his patients. Each grower provides him with roughly a pound and a half of dried marijuana per month. Cannabis Therapeutics is also insured, says Lee, who convinced his insurance agency to design a dispensary policy just for him. He also has a good relationship with the Colorado Springs police, having invited them in for a tour in 2006 after the cops caught wind of the operation."

As events have developed, municipalities in Colorado like those in Michigan have sought to regulate marijuana in their areas through zoning laws, which restrict the ability of companies to engage in these businesses. From Longmont, Colo. in 2010 from the Boulder County Business Review, "Longmont extends pot moratorium":

"The Longmont City Council Tuesday night extended its moratorium on accepting applications for business licenses from medical-marijuana dispensaries through June 30, 2011 to give city officials more time to decide how to proceed."

Similar to Michigan, the Colorado state laws were unclear on some of the regulatory details for medical marijuana, and in response state legislators passed HB 1284. This story from ColoradoMedicalMarijuana.net details the position of dispensaries opposed to the bill:

"At one point, Colorado House Bill 10-1284 was looking to be almost fair and workable, but changes made in the last few weeks and hours turned this into an anti amendment 20 peice of legislation designed to empower law enforcement and cities in removing medical marijuana."

The change in the law has resulted in restricted access to marijuana, especially for individuals living in rural areas who are unwilling to grow their own. This inventive protest in the small town of Haxtun, Colo., scheduled for Saturday, looks to protest lack of medical marijuana access with an "art revolt":

"In response to the fallout of HB 10-1284, and recent decline in patient access to medicine in Colorado, The Reefer Report is hosting the first official Medical Marijuana Art Revolt in Northeast Colorado. The event will involve painting a mural on the old Haxtun Police Station (currently owned by Angela Macdonald of The Reefer Report and her husband). Pizza and drink will be provided by our sponsors. When: August 7, 2010.
Time: starts at 10:00 am, ends whenever we are done."

There's certain to be a lot more to tell about medical marijuana as days go forward.

A note on spelling

Michigan state law refers to cannabis as "marihuana" in the context of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act of 2008, and in the portion of the Public Health Code that regulates controlled substances. Google shows about 8 millon results for the spelling with the "h", and about 28 million results for the spelling with the "j".


NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source:annarbor.com
Author: Edward Vielmetti
Contact: Contact Us - AnnArbor.com
Copyright: 2009-2010 AnnArbor.com LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
Website:Medical 'marihuana' links: a comparison with regulations in Colorado - AnnArbor.com


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