[Canniseur: It’s disappointing that communities are disallowing cannabis businesses from operating in their towns. But at the same time, the communities allowing cannabis business are being set up to leverage the situation. Ann Arbor, MI comes to the forefront of cities poised to take advantage of legalized cannabis sales.]
It was not a good night for marijuana businesses in Michigan Tuesday with voters in three of four metro Detroit communities voting against proposals to allow legal weed into their towns.
Voters in Keego Harbor, Walled Lake and Allen Park defeated proposals by wide margins that would have allowed marijuana businesses into their towns.
Lincoln Park was the exception approving a proposal to allow all cannabis business categories into their town.
In six other communities across the state, four communities said no to marijuana. Proposals to allow marijuana businesses failed in Hudson and Mt. Pleasant, while voters approved ballot issues to ban marijuana businesses in the Upper Peninsula’s Marenisco Township and South Haven in southwest Michigan.
There was some good news for marijuana that happened in mid-Michigan’s Crystal Township and Northfield Township, north of Ann Arbor, where residents gathered petition signatures to ban pot shops, but voters rejected those measures.
Last year, statewide voters approved a ballot proposal that legalized marijuana for adult recreational use by a 56-44% margin. And while local leaders can decide to allow or ban cannabis businesses, they can’t stop residents from possessing, using or growing marijuana in their homes.
In metro Detroit:
- The Keego Harbor City Council adopted an ordinance prohibiting legal weed shops from locating in the city, but citizens gathered enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot. The proposal would allow four medical marijuana dispensaries and four recreational retail stores. But voters defeated the measure by a 163-309 vote margin.
- In Walled Lake, the city council had approved an ordinance that would allow three recreational marijuana stores, but the ballot proposal bumped that up to eight retail stores. Voters said no by a 596-886 vote margin. The city has already passed an ordinance that will allow three growing operations, three processors, three transporters and two testing facilities.
- In Allen Park, a proposal to allow three marijuana retailers and three micro businesses — which allow for growing, processing and selling up to 150 plants — as well as licenses for consumption spaces and special events where marijuana can be consumed was defeated by a 1,921-3,051 margin.
- And in Lincoln Park, voters said yes by a 1,751-1,374 vote margin, to a proposal that will allow for two medical and two recreational marijuana shops and one license each for growers, processors, testing facilities, secure transporters and micro businesses.
Most of the communities that have already had ballot proposals on marijuana proposals — Highland Park, Royal Oak Township, Crystal Lake and Vanderbilt — have voted to prohibit the businesses. The city of Pontiac was the exception when voters last year passed a proposal by one vote that would allow up to 20 marijuana dispensaries and an unlimited number of other marijuana businesses into the city.
Roughly 1,368 communities across the state have told the state that they are opting out of marijuana businesses, although some of those communities have said that they will reevaluate that decision after seeing how the state rules develop and how the marijuana market shakes out.
Original Article: 7 Michigan communities vote to keep marijuana businesses out
