Detroit Pot Shops Get Reprieve In Fight Against New Law

[bobandtorey]

Detroit — A Wayne County Circuit Judge on Friday granted a temporary restraining order sought by 10 medical marijuana dispensaries that are challenging a new city law that regulates where they can locate.

Judge Daphne Means Curtis approved the 14-day restraining order following a Friday hearing on the request. Attorneys for the city and the centers are slated to return to court on April 13.

The complaint, filed Thursday, asked the court to halt the city from taking any action related to the new zoning ordinance. The rules, they contend, “unlawfully” prevent the shop operators, who are pre-existing primary caregivers licensed by the state, from providing medical marijuana to qualifying patients with “debilitating medical conditions.”

The law went into effect on March 1 after the City Council approved a pair of controversial ordinances that regulate where and how so-called pot shops can operate in Detroit. On the same day, an application went live on the city’s website for shops seeking to run legally under the city’s rules.

The filing contends the shops — all located within areas considered to be drug-free zones — were turned down outright by the city after submitting applications and provided with no means to appeal. The zoning law, the motion claims, interferes with the legal rights of the shop operators to their serve patients.

The shops formerly held valid permits, but not for medical marijuana use, since the category wasn’t created until the law went into effect, officials said.

The plaintiffs further contend that the regulation violates their constitutional rights, the centers opened prior to the city’s adoption of its zoning law and should be grandfathered in.

But Detroit Corporation Counsel Melvin Butch Hollowell dismissed the claims, saying that the city adopted a lawful ordinance that will allow for approximately 50 Medical Marihuana Caregiver Centers in various locations in the city.

“The court’s ruling today is fundamentally disconnected from the law and the facts since the Plaintiffs’ 10 medical marihuana facilities are all in Drug Free Zones which are per se illegal operations under federal, state, and city statutes,” Hollowell said in a released statement. “It is indefensible that the court is allowing these facilities to operate next to schools, churches and parks when other appropriate locations are available. We will vigorously pursue all options for a swift reversal of this order.”

The federal Drug Free School Zone Act prevents the drug from being delivered, sold or manufactured within 1,000 feet of a school. State law also factors libraries into the rule. The city’s zoning regulations cover educational institutions and goes beyond that, prohibiting shops from operating near child care centers, arcades and outdoor recreation facilities.

Timothy A. Stoepker, an attorney representing the dispensaries, declined comment on Friday.

The city in February put the 200-plus shops that had been operating in Detroit without restriction on notice that they would have to meet the newly adopted requirements or face closure.

About 195 applications overall have been submitted.

 

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2016/04/01/detroit-pot-shops-get-reprieve-fight-new-law/82537296/

[t-pain]

drug free zones only count against illegal drugs.

 

medical marijuana is schedule 2 (or unscheduled) and thus legal in the state of michigan MCL 333.8109...

[Alphabob]

333.7212(2) Marihuana, including pharmaceutical-grade cannabis, is a schedule 2 controlled substance if it is manufactured, obtained, stored, dispensed, possessed, grown, or disposed of in compliance with this act and as authorized by federal authority.

 

Apparently there are a lot of abandoned buildings that are still counting as restricted areas in Detroit; no appeal process through their system in those regards.

[semicaregiver]

Schedule 1 still includes Marihuana unless the Feds reschedule as specified in 333.7212(2).  The reference to schedule 2 was done back when they passed the big Pharma bill, SB660 or whatever it ended up being called.

 

 

 

333.7212 Schedule 1; controlled substances included.

 

(1) The following controlled substances are included in schedule 1:

 

Except as provided in subsection (2), Marihuana...

[Highlander]

Detroit is being silly.

 

Anyone who has read my posts knows I come from an anti-dispensary standpoint.  This standpoint is based on the track record of dispensary interests trying to limit home grows.  But this standpoint is immaterial in this discussion.  The City of Detroit didn't distinguish between dispensaries selling to any patient who walks through the door vs. a CG or group of CGs who might set-up a retail location to service only their registered patients.  So at this time, all we can do is believe that a licensed business in Detroit that sells MMJ is legal under the MMMA until and unless proven otherwise.  If the LEOs in the City of Detroit decide to investigate dispensaries that sell to any patient, then, OK, do that, and let the chips fall where they may.  In the meantime, the presumption of innocence should prevail. 

 

Doctors who write prescriptions for opiates are not subject to limitations based on drug free zones.  Rite-Aid isn't subject to drug free zones either.  I can understand that the City of Detroit doesn't want neon green MJ signs.  That's OK.  Same as I wouldn't want Rite-Aid to have a Las Vegas-style sign saying, "get your opiates here."

 

The Detroit restrictions for dispensaries operating close to a school, church, or park are asinine.  A legal "dispensary" should be able  to operate at any location where zoning laws allow a commercial business. 

[Alphabob]

Actually medical marijuana may not be schedule I in Michigan anymore based on MSC argument, but it is unclear if this was accepted. Just goes to show how wrong MSP labs were at writing THC schedule I for medical patients (any updates on this?). See People v Tuttle (MSC):

 

“As Ter Beek made clear, the Federal Controlled Substances Act itself authorizes Michigan to independently schedule or otherwise regulate medical marijuana as a matter of federal law:

 

No provision of this subchapter shall be construed as indicating an intent on the part of the Congress to occupy the field in which that provision operates, including criminal penalties, to the exclusion of any Stale law on the same subject matter which would otherwise be within the authority of the State. [21 USC 903.]

 

PA 268 of 2013 did precisely that, removing marijuana from schedule 1. This is only logical as marijuana cannot both ‘have’ and ‘not have’ acceptable medical uses.”

 

http://courts.mi.gov/courts/michigansupremecourt/clerks/documents/briefs-archive/2014-2015/148971/148971_mmma.amicus.pdf

 

My question... who is the bigger opposition to homegrows; some dispensary owners or LEO? Furthermore, who has the most say on this to the legislature; a few dispensary owners or several LEO organizations that run off hundreds of millions a year (and own the judiciary committee)? Those monopoly wannabes may be able to get signatures and advertisement with their cash, but LEO organizations have the real power and without the people's say involved. I know I've heard LEO pushing for either one or the other, and I've also heard of backroom deals going on between certain dispensary owners and government employees.

 

In addition, although the MSC said that non-connected transfers do not satisfy section 4, they did not say that such transfers are illegal under section 8 (only that section 8 applies to criminal proceedings only; again there is no use of 'criminal' in section 8 contrary to MSC kangaroo court's claim). I also believe the MSC erred in ruling that caregivers cannot transfer to non-connected patients under section 4, and that their basis for such provides significant self-contradiction even if ignoring section 4j. In fact, future owners or employees may be able to use McQueen for their own benefit if properly exploited (see section 4e; 'sales' and 'compensation' for connected patients is already included in 4b, says the MSC majority through McQueen, and thus the serious contradiction for interpreting 4e as the same when it explicitly excludes anything about being connected).

 

Obviously the zoning ruling was not meant to be fair or just, it was meant to eliminate the vast majority of dispensaries. Why else offer variance on the law and then tell people not to bother filing because they won't allow any?

Edited April 4, 2016 by Alphabob

[bobandtorey]

Freedom of Information Act ?  i'm sure the Law makers are not giving anything up theirs to much money involved in the cannabis business 

[bobandtorey]

Dozens of marijuana dispensaries have been denied licenses to operate because they are in drug-free zones

Buy Photo

(Photo: Salwan Georges, Detroit Free Press)

The City of Detroit wants to disqualify a Wayne County circuit judge who last week temporarily ruled in favor of 10 medical marijuana shop owners who are challenging a new Detroit law that would shut them down.

The city wants to disqualify Judge Daphne Means Curtis from handling the case any further because she and her husband have been in a legal battle with the city over their previous ownership of the historic Wurlitzer Building.

Means Curtis and her husband, Paul Curtis, wrote the city a $175,000 check to settle more than $400,000 worth of blight penalties at the Wurlitzer Building, according to the city's motion filed today to disqualify the judge. The settlement payment was part of a years-long lawsuit between the city and the judge and her husband. The building is in downtown Detroit on Broadway.

"Bricks were falling off the building and almost killed somebody," Detroit corporation counsel Melvin (Butch) Hollowell told the City Council on Tuesday, while giving an update on the medical marijuana case. "You hope that every judge can be fair and balanced as it relates to every case that comes in front of them ... in this particular case and this particular court, we have been in prolonged litigation and there is certainly that question."

Hollowell did not say exactly when the settlement was reached. The Free Press reported in October 2014 that a Wayne County Circuit Court judge granted the city's motion for $100,000 from Paul Curtis to stabilize the Wurlitzer Building as concerns grew about bricks and other debris falling from the long boarded-up high-rise. The sale of the building to a developer was reported in January 2015 and plans have been drawn up to make it a 100-room hotel.

A message was left with Means Curtis' court seeking comment on the question of potential bias.

The city is scheduled to be in her courtroom on April 13 to argue why it should be allowed to enforce a new zoning law restricting the operation of the city's many medical marijuana shops. The motion to disqualify her also could be discussed. The judge’s order does not prevent the city from enforcing the law as it relates to other dispensaries that are not involved in the case.

The city has received 195 applications to operate weed dispensaries since new restrictions went into effect March 1. Applications from the 10 shop owners suing the city were denied because the shops are in drug-free zones, which are within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and day care centers. Under the city's new ordinance, they cannot appeal because they are in drug-free zones. Some applicants who are denied for other reasons can appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals.

The shop owners sued the city on March 31. They argued they should be grandfathered into compliance because they were open before the new law took effect.

Judge Means Curtis' order last week in the case granted a temporary restraining order allowing the shop owners to continue to operate. The order was filed on Tuesday and lasts for two weeks.

A message was left today with Timothy Stoepker, attorney for the medical marijuana caregiver centers.

Hollowell told the council he believes the city will prevail because its prohibition on medical marijuana shops in drug-free zones mirrors similar prohibitions in state and federal law. He said the law, as written, will allow about 50 medical marijuana caregiver centers to exist in Detroit. Before the new regulations took effect, officials counted more than 200 marijuana dispensaries within the city limits.

"Why the court decided to — for a temporary basis — allow these facilities to operate next to schools and parks and churches is beyond me," Hollowell said. "I hope that she rethinks it as we go back before her on the 13th."

 

http://www.freep.com/story/news/2016/04/06/city-moves-disqualify-judge-handling-dispensary-case/82704186/

[t-pain]

they added parks too?

 

so parks, churches, arcades (of which there are 1 or 2 total), day care, schools, and other dispensaries.

 

whats next? cant open a shop near a mcdonalds or liquor store? lol

[Alphabob]

Wonder how many of these were included in the drug free zones... probably all of them.

 

http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/detroit/photos-80-abandoned-detroit-school-buildings-for-sale-many-in-disrepair

80+ abandoned Detroit school buildings for sale

[bobandtorey]

A group of medical marijuana shop owners in Detroit dropped their lawsuit Friday challenging the new zoning ordinance restricting where the pot shops can operate in the city.

The lawsuit's dismissal was a victory for city officials, who expected legal challenges to the new regulations, which will likely reduce the number of marijuana dispensaries in Detroit from more than 200 to about 50.

The city's top lawyer, Melvin (Butch) Hollowell, could not say exactly why the shop owners dropped the case. He said neighborhood groups supportive of the city's efforts were planning to attend an upcoming hearing in the case on Wednesday. "We’ve been really buoyed by the community's support,” Hollowell said in an interview.

 

Tim Stoepker, an attorney for the medical marijuana dispensary owners who sued the city — none of whom live in Detroit — could not be reached for comment.

The 10 marijuana dispensaries suing the city are within "drug-free" zones where such business are banned under the city's new law. The zones are within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, day care centers and parks. The restriction in the city's zoning ordinance mirrors federal and state law on drug-free zones.

 

The shop owners sued the city on March 31 in an attempt to be grandfathered in to compliance because their medical marijuana operations were up and running before the city's new law took effect on March 1.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Daphne Means Curtis temporarily ruled in the shop owners' favor last week, granting a temporary restraining order allowing the shop owners to continue to operate.

Following the ruling, the city filed a motion on Wednesday to disqualify the judge because she and her husband have been in a legal battle with the city over their previous ownership of the historic Wurlitzer Building. Means Curtis and her husband, Paul Curtis, wrote the city a $175,000 check to settle more than $400,000 worth of blight penalties at the Wurlitzer Building.

The judge's potential conflict is moot now that the case was dropped.

Hollowell said the city will continue to enforce the city's new medical marijuana laws. Enforcement could include the 10 shops involved in the legal challenge if they remain in operation, he said.

"We are obviously very pleased to have won this case," Hollowell said in a statement. "We are confident that the city's medical marijuana regulations are lawful, fair and reasonable. We will continue to enforce compliance in the courts, while concurrently processing applications submitted for medical marijuana caregiver center licenses."

 

http://www.freep.com/story/news/2016/04/08/owners-marijuana-shops-drop-lawsuit-against-city/82813532/

[t-pain]

why did the guy say he " won" the case if it was merely dropped? a dropped case isnt really a won case?

 

its a stupid case and i doubt they will refile to sue the city. but still whatever.

[bobandtorey]

I agree but Lawyers will take that kind of so called win anyway they can Say i won it's just Lawyer talk Imo Lol

[trichcycler]

A group of medical marijuana shop owners in Detroit dropped their lawsuit Friday challenging the new zoning ordinance restricting where the pot shops can operate in the city.

 

 

[bobandtorey]

How to Open a Marijuana Care Center in the City of Detroit – State of the Bud Report

 

By Richard C. Clement - Marijuana Policy Analyst

 

 

       Starting a Medical Marijuana Business in Detroit has been made much easier because of the work of CIO Beth Niblock and Department of Innovation Technology Director Chuck Dodd. Detroit is leading the way in Information Technology in the State of Michigan. The City of Detroit is the ONLY municipality in State and Local Government that has a true Marijuana Information System that can handle documents including pictures in *.jpg format.   

 

To start a Marijuana based business in Detroit you must follow these steps:

 

1. Begin 

2. Find a legal* location and; purchase the building or, pay rent to the owner of the property. 

3.  Fill out a Marihuana Application on the City of Detroit’s website

               a.       If you are approved then you can pay your $1160 fee by clicking here

4.  Fill out a Building Permit Application on the City of Detroit’s website 

5.  Fill out a Board of Zoning Appeals

               a.      If approved pay $1200 by clicking here then skip to step 7

               b.      If Denied then for $1500 dollars you can appeal your BSEED denial

                                    i.      If denied appeal to the Wayne County Circuit court and skip to step 7.

6.      Apply for a Business License Application (under construction as of 4/13/2016)

7.      End.

 

The Cost of Doing Business With Marijuana in the City of Detroit

Site Plan Review 

(Due Upon Filing)

$160

Conditional Land Use Hearing 

(Due Upon Filing)

$1000

Board of Zoning Appeals Hearing(s)

$1200  Variance 

$1500  BSEED Denial (if necessary)

Building Permit or Change of Use:  

Based on the cost of the construction.

$150  Minimum

Business License Application

To Be Developed

 

 

From Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones: Council President

Brenda Jones

“At this time no one has been granted a license to operate and no zoning variances have been granted. 66% of the current applicants do not live in the City of Detroit. Out of the 195 applications 74 of them are in drug-free zones. The City Assessors office is currently conducting real time analysis to confirm the validity of the current drug free zones.”

 

 

While the Citizens for Sensible Cannabis Reform withdrew their lawsuit (Case# 16-004185-AW Citizens for Sensible Cannabis Reform v Janice Winfrey, Detroit Election Commission, City of Detroit), the Sons of Hemp has filed another one against the Detroit’s Marijuana ordinance (Case No. 16-004201-CZ JONES, RONALD, ET AL. V THE CITY OF DETROIT). This is a group of homegrown longtime Detroit residents who own businesses that are severely impacted by this ordinance. They position is that this ordinance discriminates against native Detroit residents of color and the religious beliefs of their membership. With help from the Wayne County Circuit Court, this ordinance could be modified to remove some of the most heinous restrictions like being 1000 feet from an empty church and, a money losing golf course for example.  

 

Another restriction is the rule of Medible Marijuana that allows haters of Detroit to promote the idea that people will be getting their doors kicked in because of brownies and medicated butter on Grits or Hash Browns, Eggs with Toast and a Sausage.  This is a provision in the ordinance that can be eliminated because the people promoting this idea have stockpiled their Medible Marijuana in places like Allen Park and Ferndale and use this to drive business to their locations by bashing the City leadership and its residents.   

 

Johnson Recreation Center

Closed

Some of the churches and day care centers listed in the City’s database do not exist and in District 2, the long closed Johnson Recreation Center on Cherrylawn and Chippewa, and the School next to the rec center is being used to shut down marijuana businesses on 8 Mile Road.  Owners of these businesses are strongly urged to appeal this to the Board of Zoning and Wayne County Circuit Court.  Shutting down businesses on bad data is a bad deal for everyone because it is removing taxpaying businesses unfairly and without malice.

 

 

 

No injunction has been granted as of yet however and, the City is currently taking applications for Marijuana Caregiver Centers.  Potential owners must have a site plan and $1160 dollars down to reserve your location within City Limits. 

 

If your potential property is located on the border in the City of Detroit, and schools in parks are across the street from your location in another city, (Warren, Ferndale, Dearborn, Grosse Pointe (all), Redford, et al) their property has no bearing on your City of Detroit application. Meanwhile court proceedings will address the challenges by owners and, BSEED inspections will continue. 

 

http://friendsofgeorge.blogspot.com/2016/04/how-to-open-marijuana-care-center-in.html

[Indigro]

I tried the detroit website, in particular the location finding map... It freezes up my browser, which extends to my phone until i can get into the settings and clear my cache... Makes that process of exiting the browser slow/choppy. Odd, almost as if it was downloading something unwanted/hidden that was requiring a lot of system attention. Odd, never had this happen before, where a website is somehow slowing down functions outside of the browser. Odd

[bobandtorey]

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20160424/NEWS/160429925/detroit-medical-marijuana-shops-sprout-like-weeds-near-the-suburbs