The city of Marshall is the first in Calhoun County, Michigan to allow medical cannabis businesses to operate after the City Council voted to allow cultivation, transport, processing, and testing businesses – but not dispensaries – to operate within the city limits, the Battle Creek Enquirer reports. The move comes after lawmakers changed the state’s laws to reign in Michigan’s so-called “gray market,” implementing a more centralized regime, in September.
Councilmember Brent Williams said during the vote that it didn’t matter what his “personal opinion is” about the cannabis industry because, “if all the trending is accurate, recreational use of marijuana will be approved by the voters in the state.”
“What matters is how do we as local government accommodate … the wishes of the people in our state?” he said in the report.
Marshall City Attorney Jim Dyer had encouraged the City Council to act, one way or another, because doing nothing would likely lead to lawsuits, ultimately putting the fate of the city’s cannabis industry in the hands of the courts.
“You can take no action, and by doing so, you’re effectively prohibiting every use under the statute,” Dyer warned councilmembers. “We think that’s not very good. From the aspect of proactively avoiding litigation regarding this, it’s not good, and it’s also not good from an economic development perspective.”
The city rules require that all businesses have a security plan approved by the city manager and prohibit cannabis businesses from being within 6,000 feet of one another.
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