'Greenhouse' Effect of a Different Sort? Limits on Medical Pot can be Used Rolling Through Legislature

Michigan residents with medical marijuana prescriptions would have to go elsewhere to smoke the drug if they rent rather than own property under proposed legislation moving through the Statehouse in Lansing.

The Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would also prevent renters from growing their medical cannabis in rental properties, which include apartments and hotels, the Detroit Free Press reports. The bill now moves to the House for consideration.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, said property owners have reported tens of thousands of dollars in damage to their rental units from people growing and smoking medical weed and transforming the units into “greenhouses.”

“One constituent said his house was destroyed by a renter who had 95 plants growing in the house,” Jones said.

Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, said the restrictions would leave renters legally entitled to smoke medical pot with few options. Legislation that would allow edible cannabis stalled in the Legislature earlier this year. She wants to tie-bar the legislation on the use of medical marijuana with legislation already approved in the House that legalizes marijuana-infused products, including edibles and oils, for medical purposes.