Lynn Allen tends to his cannabis plants outside his home. Earlier this year when Proposal 1 passed allowing qualifying Michigan residents to grow and use marijuana, Allen began using it for the first time in about 30 years to combat the symptoms of having both hemophilia and HIV.
After a state Supreme Court ruling declared medical marijuana dispensaries illegal, one Michigan lawmaker hopes to keep the shops in business.
State Rep. Mike Callton, R-Nashville, is working on a bill that might combat the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision to outlaw dispensaries.
The court issued a 4-1 opinion Feb. 8 stating dispensaries that allow patient-to-patient sales can be shut down under Michigan’s public nuisance law, which gives law enforcement officials the right to close businesses if they are deemed dangerous or a disturbance to the public.
Lansing dispensaries are the nearest option for students who use medical marijuana. No dispensaries are open in East Lansing.
Callton’s bill would allow Michigan dispensaries to remain in business if the local government authorizes them. Caregivers who grow more marijuana than they use would be able to supply it to patients through a dispensary.
Of Michigan’s about 126,000 legal users, Ingham County is home to about 5,000 patients and about 2,000 caregivers, according to 2012 state records.
The issue gained spotlight after Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a lawsuit against the Compassionate Apothecary dispensary in Mount Pleasant, Mich., for violating the state’s health code.
Rocky Antekeier, owner of the medical marijuana shop Helping Hands Clinic LLC, 4100 S. Cedar St., in Lansing, said closing shops would be a disservice to local patients prescribed to the drug.
“There are people out there that don’t have a caregiver that need some medicine,” Antekeier said. “There are a lot of people who have cancer or are in wheelchairs that can’t grow it on their own.”
Antekeier said dispensaries are an important part of the area’s business sector, and his own shop brings in enough business for him to make a living.
State Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, said the court made the right decision to give law enforcement officials the authority to close medical marijuana facilities under the public nuisance law.
Jones said dispensaries opened next to schools and churches with drug rehabilitation programs with “big flashing neon lights.” He said this wasn’t what voters wanted when they approved the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act in 2008.
“When the people of Michigan voted for the medical marijuana law they thought they were voting for grandma and grandpa in their last stages of their live in severe pain or with cancer to go in and get some medical marijuana,” he said.
Jones said he has spoken with young adults who admit to using card mills, or businesses with doctors who will provide approval slips to obtain medical marijuana registry cards, to abuse the system and use marijuana recreationally.
The medical marijuana act did not specifically permit medical marijuana shops or dispensaries, but dozens sprang up around Lansing following its approval.
Callton introduced a similar bill last May to ensure dispensaries are clean establishments.
“Dispensaries are popping up left and right, and we need to make sure these places pass ‘the grandma test,’” Callton said. “If you wouldn’t feel safe having your grandma go to one of these places to pick up her medical marijuana, as if she went to a pharmacy, then it needs to be cleaned up or closed down.”
_Staff writer Darcie Moran contributed to this report. _
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