Act in Accordance?

John Ter Beek and ACLU take a stand against Wyoming’s ban

Do Michigan cities have the legal right to ban Michigan’s Medical Marihuana Act? Is the Act superseded by federal law, which completely bans cultivation, possession, use and distribution of the plant?

On April 3, the Michigan Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal filed by the city of Wyoming and consider both the legality of a city’s zoning ordinance that prohibits the use, manufacture or cultivation of medical cannabis, and “whether the MMMA is subject to federal preemption by the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), on either impossibility or obstacle conflict preemption grounds.”

This means the highest court in the state will finally rule on whether which law Michigan follows—the state’s MMJ law, or complete prohibition of cannabis in every instance.

After Michigan passed our Medical Marihuana Act, John Ter Beek grew a few marijuana plants for himself in the basement of his home in Wyoming, Michigan to treat his back pain and diabetes. Ter Beek, a retired attorney and former Godfrey Lee Board of Education member, is a state qualified MMJ patient.

It was at this time—right after the Act took effect—that “moratoriums” on medical cannabis began sprouting up across the state. Some cities did more than put a “let’s wait and see” hold on MMJ implementation in their communities.

In December 2009, the city of Livonia was the first in Michigan to pass an outright ban on medicinal cannabis. They prohibited “enterprises or purposes that are contrary to state, federal or local laws.” Police Chief Stevenson said he brought the issue to the Mayors attention after conversations with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), allegin violence, burglaries, shootings and murders at dispensaries.

Livonia was the first to implement the ban, but by November 2010, 19 Michigan municipalities had adopted the ban, 35 had placed moratoriums, and 21 permitted the Act with regulations.

In December 2010, against the advice of their city attorney, Wyoming city council also passed an MMJ ban just six days after the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the cities of Birmingham, Livonia, and Bloomfield Hills for prohibiting the Act in their communities.

When Michigan’s Court of Appeals struck down Wyoming’s ordinance banning medical cannabis, supporters of the voter-approved medical marijuana law called it a huge victory.

Dan Korobkin is an attorney with the ACLU. He argued the case on behalf of Ter Beek. “Once Michigan makes that decision it’s a decision the whole state has to abide by. You can’t have little cities and townships going around making their own rules when the state law is clear,” Korobkin says.

“The voters of Michigan wanted to make it clear that if you are using medical marijuana in compliance with this law you can’t be punished,” he says.

The court agrees; as long as patients are abiding by state laws, local unit of government cannot punish them. The judges say the state law does not conflict with the federal controlled substances act. Any violations of that act are up to the federal government to prosecute, not the local governments.

In the suit, Ter Beek alleges the City Council’s decision tramples the rights of state voters who approved medical cannabis at the polls in 2008, that the decision violates the second article of the state constitution, which guarantees citizens’ right to pass an initiative that amends state law, and that the city’s ban is vague and overly broad

“The city of Wyoming’s action in prohibiting private grow facilities within the privacy of a medical marijuana patient’s home is illegal pursuant to constitutional law and unjust alike,” Ter Beek claims in his suit.

Motor City

Detroit is known as Motor City to most Americans, but why? Existing as the “Car Capital of the World” since 1896, the reputation started when Henry Ford built his first car in Detroit. It was the method of building cars that he would later devise—the moving assembly line—that put the world on wheels for real. It’s where the US auto industry flourished. Henry Ford (and several other automobile companies) opened automobile-manufacturing factories in Detroit. Henry Ford offered and paid extraordinarily high wages (in that time) to any and all workers. People flocked to Detroit with and without their families to work for Mr. Ford. Other well known automobile companies in Detroit are Chrysler, General Motors, and American Motors. The city of Detroit is still where the majority of North American cars are made.