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Bill allowing landlords to ban medical marijuana smoking officially on Snyder’s desk

marijuana leaf
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Wikimedia | Public Domain
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wikimedia.org

Governor Rick Snyder has just a few bills from last session left to consider. Among them is a bill that would allow landlords to include a provision in their leases preventing tenants from smoking or growing medical marijuana.

Bill sponsor Republican Senator Rick Jones said the legislation protects fellow tenants and landlords from smoke and damage to buildings. “No one needs to use medical marijuana in a smoking form,” he said. “If they have a prescription, they can use it in many other ways – edibles, creams, oils, and even vaporizers.”

But medical marijuana law attorney Michael Komorn disagreed. He said the bill is excessive and attacks medical marijuana patients. “A landlord can preclude generally speaking certain behavior in a lease, so that already existed and if it’s a private entity the use of this legislation is really unnecessary because it already existed,” he said.

Under the current voter-passed Michigan Medical Marijuana law, medical marijuana users can smoke or grow marijuana in rental properties.