West Bloomfield Officials Add One Year to Medical Pot Ban

aren’t blowing smoke about their plan to keep medical marijuana facilities from opening in the township. 

The township board of trustees voted as part of the consent agenda at Monday night's meeting voted to continue a moratorium on issuing any certificates of occupancies for medical marijuana facilities until the Michigan Court of Appeals makes a ruling on their legality.

The moratorium extends by one year a previous one-year moratorium which went into effect in September 2011, to Aug. 31, 2013.

Previous public discussion on the issue has shown to divide the township board. In a July 2012 meeting, the board voted 4-3 to approve the drafting of an ordinance amendment which would ban the dispensing and sale of medical marijuana in retail, business and commercial establishments in the township.

Under state law, caregivers for medical marijuana patients are allowed to provide for up to five patients at 12 plants each.

On May 31, 2012, the state Supreme Court issued an opinion in favor of the state’s Medical Marihuana Act, which has gone to litigation as it relates to federal law against medical marijuana.

Earlier this month, in Wyoming, a state appeals court ruled against the city's outright ban on medical marijuana.