In win for local control, Michigan Supreme Court sides with township in marijuana case

The state Supreme Court said that a municipality can enforce zoning laws for medical-marijuana growers.

The court reversed a Kent County judge’s ruling, upheld by the state Court of Appeals, that Michigan’s medical marijuana law pre-empted local laws.

It was a legal victory for local control when it comes to zoning of Michigan’s relatively young marijuana industry. In overturning the lower courts ruling, the Supreme Court said the medical marijuana law did not negate a township’s authority to set zoning laws.

Byron Township required under its home-occupation requirement that a primary caregiver must obtain a permit and that the “medical use” of marijuana be conducted “entirely within a dwelling or attached garage.”

Christie DeRuiter rented a building in a commercial zone to grow marijuana. She argued that the medical marijuana law required only that marijuana be grown and kept in an enclosed, locked facility. She said the township’s zoning law conflicted with state law.

After her landlord, at the township’s direction, ordered her to stop growing marijuana or face legal action, she sought a declaratory ruling in her favor in Kent County Circuit Court. [Read more at MLive.com]