Medical Pot Ordinance Petition Submitted, Awaits Certification

[bobandtorey]

GAYLORD — After collecting nearly 600 signatures, leaders of a drive calling for a Gaylord medical marijuana ordinance submitted completed petitions to city officials.

Chad Morrow and Alan Witt, employees at Gaylord Provisions and leaders of the initiative, turned in the petitions to Joe Duff, city manager, at Gaylord City Hall, 305 E. Main St., Thursday afternoon, with approximately 584 signatures, 270 more than the 314 they were told was required.

After circulating the petitions for nearly a month, Witt said it was an interesting experience to see how people he encountered reacted to the petition and proposed ordinance.

“When we went out and really hit it, it was really neat,” Witt said. “At times I would be getting a signature, and they would point other people out and more would come over.”

Witt recalled several times while out collecting signatures when a neighbor would come over to listen and eventually sign, followed by more people nearby, resulting in the acquisition of a small collection of new signatures.

A majority of the people they encountered in the streets and on doorsteps considered the petition and showed support after hearing what it was asking for, according to Witt and Morrow.

Morrow said approximately two out of every 20 to 30 people they asked to sign the petition declined providing their signature, while the majority agreed to sign.

“A lot of people support taking the criminalization out of it,” he said. “The war is over. It is just these little battles that are still being waged.”

One of the “battles” Morrow alluded to included the raids of several Otsego County medical marijuana dispensaries, including Gaylord Provisions.

Several individuals now face charges, including Witt, though he claims he did nothing wrong, and he plans to fight the charges in a jury trial.

By implementing an ordinance, Witt said the medical marijuana industry in Gaylord and Otsego County would be better regulated and also protected.

The petition and proposed ordinance was written by Ben Horner, a board member for the Cannabis Stakeholders Group — a nonprofit organization with a mission to give more Michigan residents safe access to medical marijuana.

The petition proposes a city ordinance which would amend various sections of the current city zoning ordinance to allow for the regulated use of C-1 General Commercial District for medical marijuana provisioning centers.

A medical marijuana provisioning center is defined in the petition and in the proposed ordinance as “any building, lot, or structure where more than 25 percent is used to cultivate medical marihuana or any building, lot, or structure where three or more caregivers are cultivating, storing, delivering, transferring, or providing qualified patients with medical marihuana.”

Now that the petitions have been submitted, Deputy Clerk Kim Awrey will be responsible for certifying the signatures. Duff did not immediately know how long Awrey would have to do so.

Witt said they were previously supplied with a complete list of registered voters in the city and used it, spending many late nights matching signatures with names found on the list.

If there are no issues with the certification of the petition, Duff said the Gaylord City Council would have to approve the language on the ballot issue, then send it to Otsego County officials for approval and prepare paper ballots.

Morrow said if the issue makes it to the ballot, he believes voters will choose to enact the ordinance.

“I’m confident it will be passed in the election,” he said. “It should do a lot of things for the city. It is a really basic, general, broad start to regulation.

“The biggest thing is to get this through, sit down with the city and see if they would like to do anything more.”

 

http://www.petoskeynews.com/gaylord/featured-ght/top-gallery/medical-pot-ordinance-petition-submitted-awaits-certification/article_e74ccc22-70d0-5e03-bf60-fde68a8ef31d.html