[420 Girl]

Caregivers looking to grow medical marijuana for up to five patients will have that opportunity as an indoor business along Woodward Avenue and in other general business district areas, according to Mayor Jim Ellison.

The Michigan Medical Marihuana (sic) Act, passed by voters in a statewide election last November, allows the use of marijuana for medical purposes under certain conditions.

“The (state) law is in the books,” Ellison said. “We're gathering information to draft an ordinance that is good for Royal Oak and treats caregivers and patients fairly, like any other business.

“We're not trying to regulate the use of medical marijuana, just figuring out how the new law affects Royal Oak.”

Ellison comments came during Tuesday's public hearing on a drafted text amendment for a zoning ordinance, defining primary caregivers as a “medical marihuana (sic) dispensary” and allowing them a special land use in the general business zoning district.

Timothy Thwing, director of planning for the city, said the plan commission will review comments and set up another public hearing before voting on the text amendment.

The general business district includes “Woodward and the mile roads,” he said. “Medical marihuana (sic) dispensary” businesses would be forbidden in the central business district, which is mostly in downtown, Thwing said.

More than a half dozen people in attendance spoke in favor of allowing caregivers to grow medical marijuana as a business in the city.

The new ordinance would assist terminally ill people who cannot grow medical marijuana on their own, according to one of the speakers.

“I've had the misfortune to see friends die without medicine, and the only thing that can help them is medical marijuana,” said Christe Langdeau, a Madison Heights resident. “Many patients are not able to get out of bed. How can they grow their own?”

Only one of the dozens of people in attendance, Royal Oak resident Richard Kozlowski, spoke against caregivers growing medical marijuana as a business.

Kozlowski expressed concern about the proximity of potential sites on Woodward Avenue to homes and about whether the city would give permits to sell the drug “willy-nilly, like Life Savers.”

Kozlowski said he is concerned that medical marijuana dispensing businesses would be as common as “a drug store and gas station at every corner.” If the city is going to allow caregivers to grow medical marijuana in the general business district, it should also allow it in the central business district, he said.

Tim Beck, chairman of the metro chapter of the Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group, said caregivers should be given access as a business under the Right to Farm act.

“This is a plant and (people) have a governmental right to farm,” Beck told the plan commission.

Andrew J. Shouneyia, whose father was a pharmacist in Royal Oak, said it's important to have medical marijuana dispensers in the mainstream for better regulation.

“We've got to channel it so that the dispensers are accountable,” he said. “I am for the amendment and I want it in a responsible manner.”

Victor Hansen, a project leader for the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, said medical marijuana dispensers have different priorities than businesses.

“You're treating it as a business and it's not a business,” Hansen told the plan commission. “You're talking about patients on Social Security income, $1,100 or $1,200 a month. No one needs to know when and where (the business) is.”

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