By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com


Personal caregivers and those wishing to grow marihuana for their own use in one local township will soon need to live in the home they are growing in.

The Green Oak Township Board of Trustees this week introduced a new amendment to their Medical Marihuana Home Occupations and Recreational Use Activities ordinance.

Township legal counsel Carol Rosati said the current course of people growing has led to issues with neighbors and this amendment will help put a stop to that. She said, “What we’ve seen happening here and elsewhere is a trend of people purchasing single-family homes with no intention of residing there, but using it to grow marihuana. Although we allow primary caregivers to grow in his or her own home… that was based on the fact that somebody would be residing there. With no one residing there, that’s when you run into the problems.”

The amendment will require that someone live in the home that marihuana is being grown in.

Rosati said that without that, that there is no one there to watch the odor or other nuisances that can occur and that they have been getting complaints about these homes from neighbors. She said that one reason this may be happening is that larger grow operations are being permitted in some communities. This has a created a shorter window for individuals or smaller groups to try and get in somewhere, grow something, and sell it quickly before the large companies come in.

Green Oak Township is still not allowing any cooperatives, dispensaries or non-residential grow ops. The Board of Trustees voted unanimously in favor of introducing the amendment.