Michael Komorn was quoted in an article about Detroit law enforcement raiding dispensaries instead of licensing them.
“The current policy to shut down, raid and deny safe access is a losing hand to play,” said Michael Komorn, an attorney from Southfield and the 2015 ‘Right To Counsel Award’ winner. “Medical cannabis is a public health issue, not a public safety issue.”
“Detroit was one of remaining compassionate cities allowing safe access to medical cannabis. It has been difficult to watch the medical cannabis issue framed the way it has by the city government and community leaders. The lack of honest communication and dialogue seems to have detracted from diplomacy.”
The Detroit City Council on Thursday approved an ordinance regulating medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.
The vote was 6-1, with council member Scott Benson voting no. Members George Cushingberry and Raquel Castaneda-Lopez were not present.
The ordinance will not only limit the growth of dispensaries in Michigan’s largest city — estimated at about 150 — but roll back existing ones. The measure creates 1,000-foot buffer zones for dispensaries, which generally wouldn’t be allowed closer than that distance to drug-free zones, other dispensaries, city parks, schools and churches.
The ordinance leaves 651 parcels in the city where dispensaries could legally be located, said Butch Hollowell, corporation counsel for the city.
The ordinance will become effective March 1. Police Chief James Craig said: “We will respond to any complaints of illegal activity,” but “we’re not going to arbitrarily go after” dispensaries.
“When we find that they’re operating outside the law, we will and we have investigated that,” he said.
James Shammas, owner of Unified Collective, a dispensary on Eight Mile between John R. and Woodward, called the zoning ordinance “too constricting.”
“I don’t think there’s going to be enough dispensaries to facilitate the thousands of patients who are coming to the city every day,” he said. “Do I think it needed to be regulated? Yes. But I think they rushed it, and I don’t know what the rush is.”
Earlier, Councilwoman Janee Ayers said the city has “way too many” dispensaries.
“We don’t see this happening in the suburbs. I don’t want to drive down 8 Mile and see 31 green crosses,” Ayers said, referring to the commonly used symbol for dispensaries.
The vote came after a spirited public hearing in which a number of Detroiters argued the city has too many medical marijuana shops compared to other cities in southeast Michigan.
“Detroit should do as the suburbs do — have a moratorium,” resident Tracy Perry said. “They said no, and we said nothing, and (dispensaries) flooded into Detroit.”
The City Council, said councilman Gabe Leland, has to perform a “balancing act” between clamping down on an industry critics say has grown out of control, and allowing medical marijuana patients safe access to their medicine.
Councilman James Tate said he first learned that dispensaries were operating in the city about a year and a half ago.
“I’d hate to be in a position where I couldn’t access medicine I need,” Tate said. “But enough is enough.”
Several speakers defended the need for medical marijuana shops and took issue with the implication that dispensaries are comparable to strip clubs. Some expressed concern as to where they could safely obtain medication if dispensaries were severely rolled back.
Jim Powers, whose son, Ryan, 7, is a medical marijuana patient, warned that if access to dispensaries goes away, “I will go into the neighborhoods” to access the medical marijuana, which was approved by Michigan voters in 2008.
DETROIT – Some Detroit pastors are on a mission to wipe out weed dispensaries in the city. They say they have had enough of the smell, the addition crime and what it’s doing to Detroit’s youth. That is why the Detroit Coalition of Concerned Pastors is pushing the city council to shut down the nearly 200 medical marijuana dispensaries that now line city streets.
“We don’t need this in our community, period,” said Pastor Marvin Winans.
“The state of Michigan didn’t authorize any of them to open and neither did the city of Detroit,” said Pastor Darell Reed. “And they are popping up all over the place. It’s a problem and a nuisance.”
They say they have had enough of the smell, the addition crime and what it’s doing to Detroit’s youth.
Reed says he knows first-hand. There are two medical marijuana dispensaries right next door to his congregation, The Spirit of Love Church on Mack Avenue.
At the very least he says these businesses need strict regulations.
“We can smell marijuana in the lobby of our church,” Reed said. “It’s just bad. Now we have to have armed security because of the dispensaries. It’s a problem.”
Workers at All Natural Collective chose not to defend their business but customer Nick Ridgell did.
“If people need help and this is the only thing that helps them how can you take that from them,” said Ridgell who suffers from back problems. “That’s wrong. You can’t tell them what medication is good. If that’s the case, shut down all pharmacies.”
Winans disagrees.
“When we recognize most of our African-American boys can’t even get jobs because they can’t pass a drug test because they feel it’s okay to smoke marijuana,” he said.
Winans doesn’t believe the dispensaries are just for patients, but providing others with pot for recreational use.
Pastors are declaring war on the dispensaries and many residents, who attended the religious rally are ready to go to battle.
“The violence that is associated with it,” said Corla Jordan, from the Rosedale Park area. “Plus there isn’t a national grocery chain yet we have marijuana places. I can get that before I can get something to eat makes no sense.”
They plan to attend the Detroit City Council meeting on Thursday and speak out at the public hearing. If they can’t get council to shut the businesses down they want them to pass Ordinance 61, that would create very strict regulations – and really limit the amount of dispensaries out there.
Detroit police arrested two people and confiscated two firearms and drugs during a raid on a marijuana dispensary Tuesday afternoon.
Police seized 4,100 grams of marijuana (about 9 pounds), and removed 12 edible marijuana foods from the shelves at Detroit Medz, said Sgt. Cassandra Lewis of Detroit police Media Relations.
“Our Major Violators Unit executed a search warrant at the location at 4:30 p.m.,” Lewis said.
According to state law, only Michiganders who possess state registry cards can legally use medical marijuana, but at the shop “they were just selling to anybody who walked in,” she said.
Related: Police raids of pot dispensaries lead to arrests
Detroit does not have an ordinance regulating dispensaries. Detroit police favor having dispensaries be regulated, “so that it’s safe not just for the customers but also for the community,” Lewis added.
In addition, police say flyers advertising Detroit Medz, located at Hubbell and Puritan, were reportedly being distributed near John R. King Academic and Performing Arts Academy when a commencement exercise was taking place.
Some law enforcement agencies claim all dispensaries are illegal until the state Legislature passes a law allowing them. State Attorney General Bill Schuette agrees with that assessment.
The city of Detroit is overdue for regulating its fast-spreading dispensaries, said Winfred Blackmon, a community leader in northwest Detroit who is outspoken about medical-marijuana commerce.
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Enough with this silly war on marijuana
“I’m not against this for people who are sick, but what we want is regulation,” said Blackmon, 67, chairman of the Metropolitan Detroit Community Action Coalition – a group of community leaders from across the city. He also heads a major homeowners group in northwest Detroit called the Schaefer-7/8-Lodge Association.
Blackmon has been complaining to the city about dispensaries for months and has been in regular contact with Councilman James Tate as well as with state legislators about the need to regulate them, he said.
A local ordinance, spelling out what Detroit authorities expect of the city’s dispensaries, would protect legitimate operators and weed out any that are undesirable, added Southfield attorney Michael Komorn, president of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association.
But without such regulation in place, Tuesday’s raid was ill-advised because Detroit police should focus on violent crime – not dispensaries, Komorn said.
“I can’t speak to this specific location, but there’s a lot of dispensaries operating in Detroit and it’s unfortunate that Detroit’s leaders and citizens seem to be at odds about whether they should be there. Some people still see medical marijuana as just dope,” he said.
“These places are not causing lawlessness and they’re not hurting property values in the city,” Komorn said.
If you or someone you know is facing charges as a result of Medical Marijuana recommended to you as a medical marijuana patient under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, contact Komorn Law and ensure your rights are protected. Michael Komorn is recognized as a leading expert on the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. He is the President of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association (MMMA), a nonprofit patient advocacy group which advocates for the rights of medical marijuana patients and their caregivers.
Contact us for a free no-obligation case evaluation at 800-656-3557.
Council to hear from public on location of marijuana dispensaries
DETROIT FREE PRESS
The Detroit City Council has set a public hearing on zoning regulations for medical marijuana shops at 1 p.m. Dec. 17, 2015.
The Detroit City Council today set a public hearing for next month on its proposal to regulate medical marijuana distribution in the city.
The council will hold the hearing at 1 p.m. Dec. 17 on zoning restrictions that will govern where pot dispensaries can and cannot locate in Detroit. It is to be the companion legislation to measures that the council approved in October requiring dispensaries to be licensed by the city and shop operators to be subject to police background checks.
Detroit has seen a proliferation of more than 150 unlicensed and unregulated dispensaries in recent years, and it’s taken a year for city officials to thoroughly research and prepare a regulatory system that will both limit the number of dispensaries and ensure that medical marijuana patients have safe access to the drug, according to Councilman James Tate, who has spearheaded the regulation effort.
Councilman Scott Benson, a vocal critic of the dispensaries who says many of them are merely fronts for recreational put use, sought to have the zoning ordinance changed to prohibit dispensaries from locating in the vast majority of commercial or retail strip malls in the city, but that motion was outvoted.
Councilwoman Raquel Castañeda-López also sought to have the ordinance prohibit clustering of dispensary operations in industrial areas of the city, saying that would hurt residents who live near industrial areas. Her motion also was outvoted.
The zoning ordinance’s restrictions mandate that dispensaries not be located within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, drug-free zones, caregiver centers and liquor stores.
Dispensary owners and advocates of medical marijuana have argued that the city’s restrictions would leave few areas of the city where dispensaries could operate legally, reducing access for people who use marijuana for legitimate medical needs. But residents have flooded public meetings on the issue, saying their neighborhoods have been overrun by pot shops.
