Gun Plain Township has extended its moratorium on medical marijuana-related businesses until December.
Supervisor Mike VanDenBerg said, “We did a moratorium even though it’s an opt in. The state’s been known to change the law real quick.”
The Michigan legislature passed Public Acts 281, 282 and 283 last year.
They regulate the growth, processing and transport of medical marijuana and amend the voter-initiated Michigan Medical Marihuana Act to allow for other products using the more concentrated extracts from the marijuana plants.
The laws say the state will not even accept licensing applications for the facilities prior to Dec. 14, 2017.
Individual townships and cities are given the discretion under the state law to allow or not allow the businesses that produce or distribute the drug, which remains illegal for any purpose at the federal level.
Gun Plain passed a previous moratorium in November.
Clerk Marty Meert said, “I think it’s safe to be thorough.”
Trustee Jenann Pearson said she’d talked to former township supervisor Shelly Edgerton—who now runs the Michigan Department of Licensing And Regulatory Affairs—and believed the township should pass another moratorium.
The township planning commission, VanDenBerg said, was working on understanding the law and its implications to come up with a recommendation to the township board.
He said it was also possible the whole issue would be overtaken by events, with voters being with a ballot question on whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use, as several other states have.
“There are petitions out there to put it on the 2018 ballot,” VanDenBerg said. “My understanding is that it will likely be on the ballot.
The question would likely have been on the 2016 ballot, but some of the signatures were ruled to be too old.
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