By ANDREA POTEET
Sunday Times Newspapers
ALLEN PARK – A decision regarding the city’s medical marijuana policy will have to wait for the incoming city council after a council vote Tuesday.
City Council members voted to extend a moratorium on medical marijuana-related businesses for 30 days, citing shifting thoughts between the state and federal government about Michigan’s Medical Marihuana Act, which passed in 2008.
“There’s still a lot of discussion at the state and federal level that might very well yank this authority away from the municipalities,” Councilman James Flynn, who presented the motion for the 30-day moratorium, said. “The will of this body might ultimately not mean anything with regard to this issue.”
A moratorium on medical marijuana-related businesses was originally passed in February in the city, and was extended several times. Recent council meetings have featured community activists who delivered impassioned pleas to the council that they be able to continue to secure medical marijuana under the Michigan law.
The moratorium was originally passed in the wake of lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against Birmingham, Livonia and Bloomfield Hills alleging ordinances prohibiting dispensing marijuana is in violation of the Medical Marihuana Act and was “tightened” in April to reflect the exact types of medical marijuana businesses, including caregivers, grow operations, dispensaries, counseling services or physicians who prescribe medical marijuana, after the federal drug enforcement agents raided several grow houses throughout the state this year. Flynn added that the decision was a “philosophical one,” and should be handled by the incoming council.