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Petition to repeal Lansing medical marijuana ordinance fails to get enough signatures

Marijuana plant
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 2008.

The city of Lansing will enact a recently-passed medical marijuana ordinance after a petition to repeal it failed to get enough valid signatures.

Lansing City Council approved the ordinance in early September. It caps the number of permitted marijuana dispensaries in the city at 25 and requires operation licenses for all establishments.

Petition organizers hoped to get enough signatures to either repeal the ordinance or have it submitted to voters as a ballot proposal.

Chris Swope is Lansing City Clerk. He says many signatures were invalidated because some people signed the petition as many as three times.

Swope says it's possible that some people forgot they had already signed the petition.

"But I would think within a thirty day period, if you think it’s the same one you should kind of know whether you signed it or not," he said.

Swope says other problems with the petitions included signers that were not registered to vote or didn't reside in the city of Lansing, and issues with certifying out-of-state petition circulators.

Swope says the city will begin accepting applications Tuesday for the types of licenses outlined in the petition. He says petition organizers have ten days to file additional petitions.

Paulette is a digital media reporter and producer for Michigan Public. She started as a newsroom intern at the station in 2014 and has taken on various roles in that time, including filling in as an on-air host.
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