Border township bucks region trend, embraces marijuana

FREDERIC — Many Northern Michigan communities have made it clear they do not want medical or recreational marijuana.

But Frederic Township, located 20 miles south of Gaylord just across the Crawford County border, has bucked the area’s recent voting trends regarding the sometimes contentious issue.

The township’s board of trustees opted into the state’s medical marijuana laws in August 2017 and recently faced a similar situation following the November 2018 general election, in which state voters approved the legalization of recreational marijuana.

Bill Johnson, Frederic Township supervisor, said the decision to opt into both medical and recreational marijuana will make it easier for the community in the long run.

“We figure if we get ahead of it we can work on it better that way,” he said.

No communities in Otsego County have opted into either marijuana law.

Johnson previously said that part of the reason the township opted into medical marijuana while others didn’t is they saw what added revenue could provide to his area.

“We’re looking for some more revenue to come into the township because we’re a pretty poor township,” he said in a previous Herald Times story. “We needed other revenue to be able to do stuff with, so we did our research with it and felt we should opt in.”

Northern Michigan communities by and large have voted in opposition of the marijuana laws, but that doesn’t mean voters are always on the same page.

City and village meetings in Gaylord and Vanderbilt have at times been heated, and have consistently had people speak on both sides of the issue.

For Johnson and Frederic Township, however, there has been little resistance to opting in.

“(Frederic Township residents) elected the board,” Johnson said previously. “If they weren’t happy with us, we’d have people shaking their fists at us and cussing at us, but evidently they think we’re doing a good job.”

While communities in and around Otsego County have been reluctant to opt into the marijuana laws, Frederic Township may soon find a kindred community in a neighbor to the north.

Petoskey’s City Council recently indicated it would largely be open to allowing medical marijuana facilities within the city limits in some capacity.

According to a Petoskey News-Review story, council members voted 4-1 in favor of directing the city’s planning commission to begin discussions on specifics of allowing the facilities.

Council members admitted such a move would “likely result in eventual facilities for recreational marijuana as well.”

While city staff officially recommended the council opt out until the state promulgated its rules, council members chose not to take staff up on those recommendations, the story said.