By STAN MADDUX

Indiana Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — Already, many communities in Michigan are banning the sale of recreational marijuana until they're ready to handle what could become a stampede of prospective store owners.

It became legal on Dec. 8 in Michigan for an individual to have as much as 2.5 ounces of recreational marijuana and up to a dozen marijuana plants, following a referendum in November. Buying the drug, though, is not expected to become legal until 2020 because of the time necessary for the state to decide how to regulate sales and growing of the product.

Procedures governing the issuance of licenses for selling marijuana also must be developed.

Communities exercising their option now to prohibit the sale want to know the ground rules laid out by the state and decide for themselves where stores can locate if they choose to open for business.

New Buffalo City Manager David Richards said the ban is also protection against leaders of the legalization movement and lawyers who might want to pressure communities into allowing the drug to be sold before they're ready to decide for good.

“We don't want to be forced into making a decision. We can always reverse it,” Richards said.

Buchanan is among the communities still deciding whether to ban the sale of marijuana, but the city of less than 5,000 did send a strong message to keep investors at bay: “Don't come in here to try and set up shop way ahead of communities and the state getting organized to address this new law,” said Bill Marx, city manager.

Also undecided is New Buffalo Township, where impact on the local tourism industry is among its concerns. Planning Commission member Dave Stumm, who raises paw paws on a small farm, wonders if tourists and second homeowners with families might go elsewhere to avoid their children being tempted by storefronts of marijuana sellers.

“Do tourists say, ‘I'm not taking my kids up there where they can get pot easily?’ What's that going do to the rest of the businesses?” Stumm asked.

Under the law adopted Nov. 6 by a majority of Michigan voters, a person has to be at least 21 to legally possess recreational marijuana. Use of it cannot be done in public.

Jennifer Holton, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said it's too early to know what role the agency might play in legalized marijuana in the state. Any options farmers might have for growing marijuana are among the many unknowns, she said.

“We're just not there yet,” she explained.

Holton said the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs is in charge of developing the rules governing marijuana sales.

In Washington state, the use and sale of recreational marijuana became legal in 2013. The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) was involved as a consultant in the drafting of regulations governing sales, said Hector Castro, WSDA communications director.

Presently, that agency is active only in making sure candy and other marijuana-infused edibles are made and provided in a sanitary environment, and testing marijuana to make sure the pesticides used for growing it are safe. He said all other activity governing recreational marijuana in Washington is governed by the state's Liquor and Cannabis Board.

Castro said what impact recreational marijuana has had on agriculture in Washington is not known because marijuana is not an official U.S cash crop and is still against federal law. “Obviously, people grow it but it's not a federally recognized crop,” he explained.

He did say there are a lot of retailers: “They're not hard to find.”

The temporary bans from communities in Michigan is among the advice Castro offers for any state beginning to lay the framework for commercial sales. In Washington, he said there were people wanting a license to grow and sell it the very day after marijuana became legal.

“There is this expectation among some people that ‘I should just be able to go out there and grow marijuana and sell it.’ That's not the way it works. A whole regulatory structure has to be created and that takes time.
Managing the expectations of the public becomes important,” he said.