VGIP - Caregiver's Last Stand

      By Ben Horner


In April the Michigan Supreme Court Ruled in Favor of Byron Township, upholding the local
ordinance that restricts caregiver growers. The Court ruled that a municipality can enact an ordinance that forces caregivers to register their grow with the city, village or township authorities. Other restrictions such as, limiting the space a caregiver or patient can grow to a specified square footage of a home of property. Electrical limits have been considered.

In a unanimous opinion written by Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Bernstein, the court held the Court of Appeals erred when it ruled in favor of Christie DeRuiter, who sued after Byron Township officials told her in March 2016 that her medical marijuana-related activities constituted a zoning violation because she grew marijuana in an enclosed, locked facility at a commercial location.

“The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act (MMMA) doesn’t nullify a municipality’s “inherent authority to regulate land use” under the state’s zoning act -- so long as it doesn’t prohibit or penalize all medical marijuana cultivation.”

The Vote Green Initiative Project (VGIP) was started as an education program to promote being active in the election process.  In the years past dozens of meetings were held around the state to educate and advocate for individual cannabis rights, safe access to medical marijuana, as well as local petition drives. Thousands of iconic Vote Green tee shirts were distributed to eager participants to wear as badge of honor.

Many cities around the State used the VGIP platform to assemble petition teams, led by the Godfather of cannabis law, Tim Beck of the Safer Michigan Coalition. Several petition styles were drafted, to tackle the nuances of each municipality. Sometimes amending a cities code to remove penalties was the simplest way to produce a victory. Chuck Ream used a different technique in Ypsilanti called Lowest Law Enforcement Priority (LLEP), which used money spent and annual reports to curb marijuana prosecutions.  Grand Rapids, working independently took a play from Ann Arbor and made possession a small fine, to decriminalize pot to a certain degree.

These small victories in Detroit, Ypsilanti, Flint, Ferndale, Grand Rapids, Port Huron, Saginaw, and several others, demonstrated solid support for legalization. Thus, a statewide campaign was started and has now come to fruition. For many this is a lifetime achievement culminated by years of hard work in the face of reefer madness.  But is the fight over?


VGIP will be conducting Petitioning Seminars around the state to reverse ordinances in communities that enact harmful cannabis cultivation rules. Contact Ben Horner if you are interested in hosting one in your community.