PORTAGE (WKZO-AM) — The Portage City Council has approved a six month moratorium on new permits for medical marijuana caregivers, despite a capacity crowd urging them to allow the establishment of cooperatives or dispensaries now.
Right now, Portage only allows caregivers to operate as a home business — that may have worked when there were only a few people with medical marijuana cards. Now, Portage may have hundreds of marijuana caregivers scattered through neighborhoods, growing the drug in their homes and distributing from their living rooms.
One speaker noted that Walgreen’s locates on busy street corners for a reason. Dozens spoke in favor of changing the city ordinance to make access easier for patients who are suffering real pain and nausea that marijuana can relieve.
Because it takes six months for the plants to mature, a patient either has to find a caregiver already growing the particular kind of marijuana they need on Craigslist, drive hours to a dispensary in Ann Arbor or Lansing, or take their chances buying it illegally from a dealer.
There are currently two “dispensary” operations in Portage that were denied a zoning variance and some say operating in violation of state law.
The council voted 3-3 on whether the city manager should enforce the ordinance banning such operations during the moratorium, while the state legislature is considering legislation that would allow them.
The two storefront operations still have the option to appeal their denial of a zoning variance and the courts are also an option.
City Attorney Randall Brown said they need the six months to see what the legislature will do and what the courts may do with some pending cases. Brown said they also plan to spend time looking at what other communities are doing and to consult with local growers and dispensary operators to craft a new ordinance.
It’s clear to everyone that what is currently in place isn’t working for caregivers or for most patients — the ground under them is constantly shifting and the picture in six months may be very different than the range of options available today.
