Voters in 7 Michigan cities opt to keep marijuana businesses out

It was not a good night for marijuana businesses in Michigan on Tuesday with voters in three out of four metro Detroit communities voting against proposals to allow legal weed  into their towns.

Voters in Keego Harbor and Walled Lake defeated proposals that would have allowed in marijuana retail shops while Allen Park defeated a proposal that included retail shops, small grow operations and public consumption businesses. 

Lincoln Park was the exception, with voters approving a proposal to allow all cannabis business categories into their town. 

In six other communities across the state, four communities said no to marijuana. Proposals to allow marijuana businesses failed in Hudson and Mount Pleasant, while voters approved ballot issues to ban marijuana businesses in the Upper Peninsula's Marenisco Township and South Haven in southwest Michigan.

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There was some good news for marijuana in mid-Michigan's Crystal Township and Northfield Township, north of Ann Arbor, where residents gathered petition signatures to ban pot shops, but voters rejected those measures.

Last year, voters statewide approved a ballot proposal that legalized marijuana for adult recreational use by a 56%-44% margin. And while local leaders can decide to allow or ban cannabis businesses, they can't stop residents from possessing, using or growing marijuana in their homes.

The vote on the proposals Tuesday doesn't mean that those communities won't have cannabis businesses. In some cases, such as Walled Lake, the City Council had already given tentative approval for recreational marijuana businesses, but voters weren't presented with that proposal. They rejected a plan that would have allowed 11 marijuana retail shops in the small town that's only 2.4 square miles with a population of just over 7,000.

And all the communities can revisit their bans at any point in the future.

"When we were drafting the ballot initiative, we went with the local opt-out language because it was very clear to us that the voters were very supportive of ending prohibition of marijuana, but not all voters were ready to embrace marijuana commerce in their communities," said Robin Schneider, executive director of the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association. "We're going to have to work on educating municipalities about the state's licensing program and demonstrate to them that it's well-regulated before they're ready to opt in."

In metro Detroit:

• The Keego Harbor City Council adopted an ordinance prohibiting legal weed shops from locating in the city, but citizens gathered enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot. The proposal would have allowed four medical marijuana dispensaries and four recreational retail stores. But voters defeated the measure by a 309-163 vote margin.
• In Walled Lake, the City Council had approved an ordinance that would allow three recreational marijuana stores, but the ballot proposal bumped that up to eight additional retail stores. Voters said no by a 886-596 vote margin. The city has already passed an ordinance that will allow the three retailers, three growing operations, three processors, three transporters and two testing facilities.
• In Allen Park, a proposal to allow three marijuana retailers and three micro businesses — which allow for growing, processing and selling up to 150 plants — as well as licenses for consumption spaces and special events where marijuana can be consumed was defeated by a 3,051-1,921 margin.
• And in Lincoln Park, voters said yes by a 1,751-1,374 vote margin to a proposal that will allow for two medical and two recreational marijuana shops and one license each for growers, processors, testing facilities, secure transporters and micro businesses.

Most of the communities that have already had ballot proposals on marijuana proposals — Highland Park, Royal Oak Township, Crystal Lake and Vanderbilt — have voted to prohibit the businesses. The city of Pontiac was the exception when voters last year passed a proposal by one vote that would allow up to 20 marijuana dispensaries and an unlimited number of other marijuana businesses into the city.

Roughly 1,368 communities across the state have told the state that they are opting out of marijuana businesses, although some of those communities have said that they will re-evaluate that decision after seeing how the state rules develop and how the marijuana market shakes out.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.