Alpena City Council redrafting medical marijuana ordinance

ALPENA, Mich. — Alpena City Council began discussing their new medical marijuana regulations tonight. The city is forming a new ordinance after voting to allow unlimited provisioning centers last month.

Currently, two medical marijuana dispensaries are in the process of coming to Alpena. Green Buddha will be located at the old thunder bay river restaurant building on West Chisolm Street, and Lume Cannabis Company will also call West Chisolm Street its home.

As of recently, these were the only two provisioning centers allowed in Alpena– but council members voted to remove the limit.

“The municipal council voted to tack the cap away for provisioning centers so they would be unlimited,” said City Manager Rachel Smolinski. “So really that is the only change that has been confirmed at this point, so the work session tonight is going to be to discuss any proposed changes.”

The council met for over an hour tonight to discuss the contents of the new ordinance. Officials left the work session to draft the new regulations and expect completion in a few months.

“At some point we would open up the application process again,” Smolinksi said. “The process of developing a new ordinance however takes a little bit longer.”