Union Township may act on marijuana laws this week

Union Township could give final approval this week to a pair of laws to regulate and license businesses related to Michigan's medical marijuana law.

The township board already has given a preliminary OK to a proposed amendment to the township's zoning law and a new law that would require medical marijuana dispensaries and growing operations to get licenses from the township.

But at least one township resident is worried that by establishing a licensing regime, the township is giving approval to activities that violate federal law.

"Federal law puts marijuana as a Schedule 1 medication," said pharmacist Jim Horton, himself a former township planning commissioner. "In a nutshell, Schedule 1 medications are classified as having no legitimate medical purpose."

He said pharmacists cannot have it in their pharmacies without breaking the law.

"By passing this ordinance, you're allowing businesses to violate federal law," Horton told board members. Currently, federal drug enforcement authorities are not enforcing the law as it applies to the medical use of marijuana.

"If the current federal administration undergoes any changes," Horton said, "you're left with a nightmare of businesses being raided, businesses being shut down."

He also warned that it's conceivable that federal sanctions could be brought against municipalities that appear to encourage production or use of marijuana.

In 2009, the Justice Department told prosecutors they should not focus investigative resources on patients and caregivers complying with state medical marijuana laws. A recent memo to federal prosecutors from U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole says that view has not changed.

"There has, however, been an increase in the scope of commercial cultivation, sale, distribution and use of marijuana for purported medical purposes," says the new memo by Cole.