LANSING – City residents, business owners and community leaders today called on the Lansing City Council to extend the moratorium on new marijuana stores, allowing more time to draft responsible regulations that protect the safety of patients and the community.
A 90-day extension would allow new recommendations from local residents and input from experts to be thoroughly considered, members of the group said.
“Lansing residents deserve to be heard on this issue, which affects not only their neighborhoods but their families,” said Averill Woods Neighborhood Association President Melissa Quon Huber, who spoke at a news conference in front of Cooley Law School Stadium. “Residents have good suggestions for improving the proposed ordinance and the city council should have the good sense and common courtesy to give them thoughtful consideration.”
The city’s moratorium on new marijuana stores expires July 1. It was put into effect in December, as city officials struggled with a flood of marijuana stores that opened in the wake of a November 2008 statewide ballot proposal legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Lansing has more marijuana stores than any other city in the state – and twice as many as San Francisco. While Lansing has 48 marijuana stores, it has only 27 licensed pharmacies.
“Clearly, when a town the size of Lansing has more marijuana stores than the city of San Francisco, due diligence is required in crafting laws to regulate that mushrooming industry,” said Jim Herbert, CEO of Lansing’s Neogen Corp. and an Eastside resident. “As a businessman, I’m all for growth – I just want that growth to be responsible.”
Supporters of extending the moratorium said the unregulated proliferation of marijuana stores along Michigan Avenue and other fragile areas of the city could slow revitalization efforts and tarnish Lansing’s image. A lack of oversight by local and state officials also poses safety risks for the patients who rely on marijuana to cope with debilitating conditions.
Moratorium backers say extending it will allow city officials time to consider other common-sense regulations, including the prohibition of drive-through pickups of marijuana, as well as on-site growing and consumption. Other suggested improvements include:
• Requiring stringent packaging and labeling rules for any marijuana delivered to patients.
• Barring the stores from opening in fragile neighborhoods on the verge of revitalization, including REO Town, Old Town, East Michigan and West Saginaw.
• Requiring ordinance regulations to be applied equally to all, prohibiting special treatment via a “grandfather clause.”
• Capping the total number of marijuana stores at 10 and requiring that they be spread throughout the city so that no one area bears the brunt of the impact.
• Requiring strong background checks for store employees and owners, and requiring them to keep traditional business hours and audit and track the products they sell.
“Lansing needs to make sure this growing industry does no harm to patients,” Herbert said. “The city should be willing to put in the extra time it will take to craft an ordinance that ensures patient safety. Extending the moratorium will do that.”