Bill Allowing Landlords To Ban Medical Marijuana Smoking Goes To Snyder’s Desk

Supporters say it protects fellow tenants and landlords from smoke and damage to buildings.

Marijuana Plant

Jake Neher/WDET

Gov. 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 Sen. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge) 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. 

Author

  • Cheyna Roth is the co-host and creator of WDET's state politics podcast, MichMash. She has been an audio journalist for almost a decade, covering major events like presidential elections, college scandals, the Michigan Legislature and more, appearing on NPR and across Michigan public radio stations. Cheyna is also a senior producer and podcast host for Slate.com, having produced and hosted shows like Political Gabfest, The Waves, and What Next TBD. Also an author, Cheyna has written two true crime books and her written work has appeared in Broadly, Slate, and MLive, among others.