Medical marijuana facilities are now legal in the State of Michigan, but don’t look for any to open in Oxford Village.

Last week, council voted 4-1 to “deny granting all five types of medical marijuana licenses by affirmatively taking no action in accordance with the state statute.”

“I don’t think I’ve made any secret of the fact that I’m against this,” said village President Sue Bossardet.

In September, Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill, now known as Public Act (PA) 281, authorizing the licensing and regulation of five types of medical marijuana facilities – growers, processors, secure transporters, provisioning centers (commonly called dispensaries) and safety compliance facilities (testing labs).

The law took effect Dec. 20 and under it, the licensing of such facilities, by the state, will begin a year from now.

By doing this, the state is giving municipalities time to decide what actions they wish to take in response.

Village attorney Bob Davis told council this law is “unique” in that taking “no action is action.”

“If you do nothing, then none of the five (types of facilities) are allowed (in the village) until you do something,” he said.

“The law says unless you have an ordinance allowing such a use in a designated zoning category, the use is not allowed,” Davis explained.

Despite this, Councilman Erik Dolan still felt it was necessary for council members to approve a motion in order to put their collective position and individual votes on the record. To him, it was “important” for council “to take a stand” and “show leadership on the topic.”

“Not taking any action whatsoever is devoid of leadership, in my opinion,” Dolan said.

Most council members agreed medical marijuana facilities are just not a good fit for the village.

Given the municipality is “a very dense square mile” filled with many churches, schools and daycare providers, Bossardet said there’s “an extremely limited (number of) places” where such facilities could go.

Bossardet noted she initially “may have considered” allowing them in the industrial area, but not anymore because she fears that could drive other businesses out of the village.

“We have a lot of very successful businesses in the industrial area,” she said. “My guess is that they would not want one of these facilities next to them. I would hate to lose any of our successful industrial businesses because we chose to do that.”

To Dolan, a 20-year veteran of Oak Park’s public safety department, prohibiting these facilities is about protecting “the safety of the community.” He noted that impaired driving due to marijuana use “is rivaling, if not surpassing” impaired driving caused by alcohol consumption.

Councilman Tom Kennis does not believe the benefits of allowing medical marijuana facilities outweigh the “turmoil” and “chaos” that decision could cause “within our little one-mile community.”

“Everyone knows I’m pro-business and very open-minded when it comes to this, but there’s not a lot of financial gain for (the village) if we allowed it,” he said.

The new state law authorizes municipalities to charge an annual fee of up to $5,000 on licensed facilities to offset administrative and enforcement costs.

PA 281 also imposes a 3 percent excise tax on the retail sale of medical marijuana by licensed provisioning centers. This tax revenue will be collected by the state, which, in turn, will return 60 percent to municipalities and counties. Of that, 25 percent goes to municipalities in which a facility is located.

Only Councilwoman Maureen Helmuth was opposed to prohibiting medical marijuana facilities.

“I’ve always been of the opinion that if it’s a legal use, we have to look at our zoning ordinance (and) we have to allow it somewhere be it a trailer park, a strip bar, a low-income housing (development),” she said. “Everything should be allowed somewhere . . . Look at that use, (then) find the best place for it. If it’s legal, we should allow it somewhere.”

Helmuth chastised her fellow council members for making a decision that, to her, was based simply on “a fear of marijuana.”

“Everybody’s talking like there’s going to be a head shop on every corner,” she said.

But she pointed out there are five different types of licensed facilities under the new law that the village could consider allowing.

“They’re not all retail (uses) or growers,” Helmuth said. “I think to just blatantly say ‘no’ is just shortsighted.”