cannabisnews.com: Michigan Supreme Court Strikes Down MMJ Ordinances
function share_this(num) {
 tit=encodeURIComponent('Michigan Supreme Court Strikes Down MMJ Ordinances');
 url=encodeURIComponent('http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/27/thread27874.shtml');
 site = new Array(5);
 site[0]='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[1]='http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[2]='http://digg.com/submit?topic=political_opinion&media=video&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[3]='http://reddit.com/submit?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[4]='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 window.open(site[num],'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=620,height=500');
 return false;
}






Michigan Supreme Court Strikes Down MMJ Ordinances
Posted by CN Staff on February 06, 2014 at 17:56:46 PT
Metro News
Source: Detroit News
Michigan -- Local communities can’t pass ordinances that try to pre-empt Michigan’s 5-year-old medical marijuana law, according to a unanimous Michigan Supreme Court ruling released Thursday.In the case in question, the west Michigan city of Wyoming created a 2010 zoning ordinance that prohibited the use, cultivation or manufacture of marijuana. The Supreme Court ruling appears to invalidate similar ordinances in Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia that were challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.
The ACLU said the local ordinance tried to ban medical marijuana, while Wyoming’s attorney argued the city was trying to regulate the substance in a way that protected the health and safety of its residents.But the “city’s ordinance directly conflicts” with the state’s medical marijuana law by allowing what the law “expressly prohibits: the imposition of any penalty, including a civil one, on a registered qualifying patient whose medical use of marijuana falls with ... the immunity” granted under state law, Justice Bridget McCormack wrote for a unanimous court.Federal law criminalizing marijuana doesn’t invalidate the state’s medical marijuana law, the court ruled, because the state law “doesn’t interfere with or undermine federal enforcement of that prohibition,” McCormack wrote.The state legally allowed “a limited class of individuals to engage in certain uses in an effort to provide for the health and welfare of Michigan citizens,” according to the decision.But the Supreme Court left the door open for some local regulation of marijuana.The court said it didn’t decide that the state medical marijuana law “forecloses all local regulation of marijuana; nor does this case require to reach whether and to what extent the (state law) might occupy the field of medical marijuana regulation.”Wyoming resident John Ter Beek challenged the local ordinance because he said he is a qualified medical marijuana patient who grows and uses marijuana in his home. While the city didn’t charge Ter Beek with violating the ordinance, he sued in Kent County Circuit Court to void the city law by arguing the city intended to pre-empt the voter-passed state lawallowing medical marijuana growing and use.The U.S. Justice Department has said it won't use the federal law outlawing marijuana use to prosecute people complying with more permissive state laws.Source: Detroit News (MI)Published: February 6, 2014Copyright: 2014 The Detroit News Contact: letters detnews.com Website: http://www.detnews.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/l4ifbAP0CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help 
     
     
     
     




Comment #1 posted by schmeff on February 10, 2014 at 11:20:35 PT
Logical
Suppose a city tried to make it illegal to get your heart medicine or your insulin. Wouldn't fly...no way. The Michigan Supreme Court got it right.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment