Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
Activists and marijuana dispensary owners turned in 300 signatures Monday afternoon calling for a ballot measure opting in to the state’s new medical marijuana licensing laws.
The petition was turned in the day before all petitions for municipal ballot issues were due for the Nov. 7 election.
Marijuana activist and former Cloud 45 dispensary owner Chad Morrow said he had originally planned to pick up the petitions from Lansing last week.
Those plans were laid to waste when his dispensary and four others were raided the night of July 24. He said he was in jail until the end of the week, giving the activists just 48 hours to complete the petitions.
Kody Bigelow, of Cloud 45, said at least 200 of the signatures were valid by the group’s count. On Monday, he said the group needed 160 for the measure to land on the November ballot.
According to City Clerk Kim Awrey, petitions need 321 valid signatures to make the ballot — one-tenth of the total votes cast in the last city election.
Awrey said the process of validating each signature could take up to a week, so she could not yet comment on whether the petition has the required number. Once all the signatures are counted, she will inform the petitioners about the result.
Bigelow and Kevin McCarthy, a 33-year-old Gaylord man who has had rheumatoid arthritis from childhood, handed the petitions to Awrey from his wheelchair at about 4:20 p.m. Monday.
“The only relief I get is from medical marijuana,” McCarthy said. “I don’t like taking synthetic pills that will mess up my insides.”
Before he switched to medical marijuana, McCarthy said he was taking more than 20 pills a day, sometimes multiple doses per day, plus weekly and biweekly injections.
“Once I switched to medical marijuana, all that stuff went away,” he said. “I didn’t need it any more.”
The proposal calls for background checks on all those hoping to open up a new dispensary and a public hearing before any license is granted at the local level, and places taxes on marijuana sold.
“I’ve had lots of people calling me crying, they’re in hospitals and can’t find the medicine they need. … The city gets bad publicity in my eyes,” Bigelow said.
Activists have been calling on city officials to opt in to the new law for months now.
The law, which was signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in September 2016, allows municipalities to set certain regulations on dispensaries within their boundaries, or opt out of granting licenses completely.
Although Gaylord enacted an amendment to its zoning ordinance in 2016 allowing dispensaries to operate in C1 and C2 commercial districts, officials have repeatedly said that they will not move forward with an ordinance opting in to the new licensing system by December, when dispensaries can begin filing licensing applications with the state.
The activists hope that this proposal will circumvent that delay by putting the decision in the hands of voters instead.
If residents vote yes on the measure, it will become active 45 days from election day.
Jamie Lowell, an activist with Michigan Medical Marijuana Law Experts, said other cities in Michigan, like Detroit and Lansing, will also likely have measures on their ballots on opting in to the law, and said a ballot initiative was a viable legal alternative to an ordinance passed by a city council.
However, he did say that once a city does opt in, zoning regulations on dispensaries might require a council vote.
"I think we're probably going to see that as a challenge, that a decision is going to have to be made on that," he said.
Frank James, one of the owners of All Well Natural Health, one of the dispensaries that was raided, said the current state of affairs in Michigan and in Gaylord makes it dangerous for dispensary owners and medical marijuana cardholders to live their lives without fear of repercussions.
“You want to know who in the state’s going to protect us?” he said. “Nobody, including [the media]. Nobody is out there to protect us.”
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Activists file petition with city to let voters decide marijuana licensing issue | Gaylord | petoskeynews.com
Author: William T. Perkins
Contact: Contact Us | About | petoskeynews.com
Photo Credit: JAKE BROWN
Website: petoskeynews.com | Northern Michigan News, Sports, Entertainment, and Classifieds
The petition was turned in the day before all petitions for municipal ballot issues were due for the Nov. 7 election.
Marijuana activist and former Cloud 45 dispensary owner Chad Morrow said he had originally planned to pick up the petitions from Lansing last week.
Those plans were laid to waste when his dispensary and four others were raided the night of July 24. He said he was in jail until the end of the week, giving the activists just 48 hours to complete the petitions.
Kody Bigelow, of Cloud 45, said at least 200 of the signatures were valid by the group’s count. On Monday, he said the group needed 160 for the measure to land on the November ballot.
According to City Clerk Kim Awrey, petitions need 321 valid signatures to make the ballot — one-tenth of the total votes cast in the last city election.
Awrey said the process of validating each signature could take up to a week, so she could not yet comment on whether the petition has the required number. Once all the signatures are counted, she will inform the petitioners about the result.
Bigelow and Kevin McCarthy, a 33-year-old Gaylord man who has had rheumatoid arthritis from childhood, handed the petitions to Awrey from his wheelchair at about 4:20 p.m. Monday.
“The only relief I get is from medical marijuana,” McCarthy said. “I don’t like taking synthetic pills that will mess up my insides.”
Before he switched to medical marijuana, McCarthy said he was taking more than 20 pills a day, sometimes multiple doses per day, plus weekly and biweekly injections.
“Once I switched to medical marijuana, all that stuff went away,” he said. “I didn’t need it any more.”
The proposal calls for background checks on all those hoping to open up a new dispensary and a public hearing before any license is granted at the local level, and places taxes on marijuana sold.
“I’ve had lots of people calling me crying, they’re in hospitals and can’t find the medicine they need. … The city gets bad publicity in my eyes,” Bigelow said.
Activists have been calling on city officials to opt in to the new law for months now.
The law, which was signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in September 2016, allows municipalities to set certain regulations on dispensaries within their boundaries, or opt out of granting licenses completely.
Although Gaylord enacted an amendment to its zoning ordinance in 2016 allowing dispensaries to operate in C1 and C2 commercial districts, officials have repeatedly said that they will not move forward with an ordinance opting in to the new licensing system by December, when dispensaries can begin filing licensing applications with the state.
The activists hope that this proposal will circumvent that delay by putting the decision in the hands of voters instead.
If residents vote yes on the measure, it will become active 45 days from election day.
Jamie Lowell, an activist with Michigan Medical Marijuana Law Experts, said other cities in Michigan, like Detroit and Lansing, will also likely have measures on their ballots on opting in to the law, and said a ballot initiative was a viable legal alternative to an ordinance passed by a city council.
However, he did say that once a city does opt in, zoning regulations on dispensaries might require a council vote.
"I think we're probably going to see that as a challenge, that a decision is going to have to be made on that," he said.
Frank James, one of the owners of All Well Natural Health, one of the dispensaries that was raided, said the current state of affairs in Michigan and in Gaylord makes it dangerous for dispensary owners and medical marijuana cardholders to live their lives without fear of repercussions.
“You want to know who in the state’s going to protect us?” he said. “Nobody, including [the media]. Nobody is out there to protect us.”
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Activists file petition with city to let voters decide marijuana licensing issue | Gaylord | petoskeynews.com
Author: William T. Perkins
Contact: Contact Us | About | petoskeynews.com
Photo Credit: JAKE BROWN
Website: petoskeynews.com | Northern Michigan News, Sports, Entertainment, and Classifieds