Discussions about medical marijuana dispensaries continue for area municipalities in the wake of a state law passed last fall and in anticipation of a state-wide ballot proposal likely to take place in November 2018.

The Dorr Township Planning Commission was asked by Township Clerk Debbie Sewers to take up the issue, but Tuesday night its consensus was that the Township Board first must give direction.

Commissioner Terri Rios and Township Treasurer Jim Martin both attended a seminar on medical marijuana dispensaries in Grand Rapids Tuesday and they told colleagues about what they saw and heard.

Rios said she heard a speaker from Ohio and another from Colorado and reported an uptick in the number of fatal marijuana-related traffic crashes in Colorado, which legalized all pot in 2013.

However, Commission Vice Chairman Robert Traxler noted a state-wide ballot proposal proposes marijuana be legalized and regulated just like alcohol.

“And it will probably pass,” he added, noting a hefty 63% of voters in Michigan in 2008 approved the medical marijuana law now in effect.

“Medical marijuana is a sham,” he asserted. “They ought to just legalize it.”

Rios disagreed, calling marijuana a “gateway drug” to other more dangerous substances, a claim that’s been made widely since President Richard Nixon declared the War of Drugs in 1971.

She also outlined medical problems that have been associated with the edible form of marijuana in Colorado, which is manufactured without controls and regulations that govern foodstuffs.

Commission Chairman Bob Wagner said, “I think we ought to be more concerned about opiods than marijuana” because the former is being blamed for a rise in deaths of people ages 50 and younger.

Martin said, “It’s all coming so fast,” noting that regardless of what the township decides to do, approval of the 2018 ballot initiative could render all else moot.

Rios, who is the Planning Commission’s Township Board representative, said the Township Board would like the commission to develop some kind of policy approving or rejecting dispensaries. However, Wagner said the Township Board must give the commission some kind of direction.

“If the Township Board says they’re not going to allow it, then there’s nothing we should do,” he said.

Traxler added, “If they (the Township Board) say yes, then we can write the ordinance.”

The issue is being brought to a head because of a law passed by the State Legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Snyder that permits local government units to allow dispensaries or reject them and regulate them, at the same time receiving fees. The local ordinance would oversee the growing, sale, processing and transporting of marijuana.

Presentations and proposals have been made before the Watson, Dorr, Leighton and Wayland Township Boards and the Wayland City Council and Planning Commission.

PHOTOS: Terry Rios   Jim Martin