This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on January 18, 2011.
They can say whatever they want. They can call it what they want . . . zoning, monitoring or whatever “municipal oversight” term they have conjured up over the years to limit yours and my property and privacy rights. But it is what it is — they are passing ordinances and laws at a local level that severely impact the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act and the rights of patients/caregivers to grow, cultivate and manufacture marijuana. This is not about the police or prosecutors . . . it is about Patients.
What is different about this law is that the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act limits government. Most laws limit people. When a law is written by the People for the People, government doesn’t like it. Sorry to sound libertarian but government has become the most dominating force in society. The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act is the reverse — it restrains government and liberates people. I know what this Act is intended to do — I represent the two (2) political groups responsible for writing it. The Marijuana Policy Project (www.mpp.org) and the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care (the ballot question initiative committee) are my clients. It was an honor and a privilege to have been contacted by these groups when they needed representation. It also allowed me to spend hours and days talking with the drafters of the initiative.
The City of Southfield intends to limit where marijuana can be cultivated. Light Industrial areas are where they want to relegate the “caregivers” and growers. Here’s their map:
Nowhere within the Michigan Marijuana Act is there any designation that caregivers or growers must grow marijuana in “light industrial areas”. Another City is changing the Act. Another City is trying to restrict Medical Marijuana. Another City needs stopping.
Neil Rockind is a Southfield attorney that has represented several high profile medical marijuana cases and serves as a member of the Marijuana Patients Organization. He is a regular expert attorney on NBC (WDIV 4) and FOX (Detroit) and serves several area non profits.