Health & Fitness
WB Township Board Gets It Right!
The WBT board made great decisions at its last meeting, to approve an extension of the moratorium on distribution of medical marijuana and to defeat a vague ordinance which would have it prohibited.
Monday night, the West Bloomfield Township Board made two good decisions: 1) to maintain its moratorium on the distribution of medical marijuana through June 30th, and 2) to defeat a motion that would have considered an ordinance to prohibit medical marijuana. The ordinance would be modeled on those in other cities by "prohibiting all activities that conflict with federal law." Royal Oak recently passed an ordinance that does just that, and is now defending its ordinance in court. Several other communities have pending suits over their ordinances restricting medical marijuana: Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Livonia, Bloomfield Township and Lyon Township. There was discussion that this language is too vague to satisfy our Constitution.
The reason I bring this up is not to discuss the merits of medical marijuana, but the costs of going to court when such ordinances are inevitably challenged. Royal Oak budgeted $18K to defend its ordinance, and has already spent almost $4K of that on a minor procedural matter. The other communities mentioned above are facing similar costs. This is in a time where communities are cutting budgets or asking taxpayers to approve a Headlee override (to avoid reducing millage rates). I am glad that the West Bloomfield Board decided not to pursue an ordinance at this time. It is fiscally prudent to let the other cities pay for the legal costs. When the dust settles, the township will know what the law requires, but will have saved its taxpayers thousands of dollars by prudently refraining from acting in haste. We can fix a lot of potholes with that money!
