New Ruling Regarding Medical Marijuana Laws

The Michigan Supreme Court says local communities can’t pass ordinances to preempt the state’s medical marijuana law. The high-court’s ruling, issued yesterday, strikes down a 2010 zoning ordinance in the west Michigan city of Wyoming that prohibited growing or using marijuana within city limits. The decision also appears to invalidate similar ordinances in other cities. The city of Wyoming had argued that it could strictly regulate medical marijuana because federal law still prohibited any production or possession of marijuana. But the Supreme Court disagreed, saying Federal law criminalizing marijuana doesn’t invalidate the state’s medical marijuana law because the state law doesn’t interfere with or undermine federal enforcement of that prohibition. The challenge to the local ordinance was brought by a resident who says he is a qualified medical marijuana patient who grows and uses marijuana in his home.