Put that in your pipe and smoke it

As the City Council struggles to figure out how and where commercial medical marijuana growers can locate here, we’d like to add our two cents.

There is talk of restricting commercial operations in commercially zoned areas and out of residential neighborhoods (except for personal – legal — use).

That sounds reasonable, although we like the idea of mixed use in small cities, such as a bar at the corner of the street, a market here and there and maybe an office or service station mixed in.

But since we’re dealing with a controlled substance, we’ll let that go.

But the talk of not allowing legal marijuana facilities from opening on Jos. Campau strikes us as ridiculous. Some members of the City Council need to take a hard look at the state of retail shopping on Jos. Campau.

In a rare moment, we have to agree with former city official Robert Zwolak, who noted: Jos. Campau retail doesn’t exist.

Well, it exists but there is a lot – and we mean a lot – of empty storefronts and buildings. So what if marijuana is grown there?

And there is also talk of restricting the number of facilities to five or six.

This one grates us even more: Is there a problem with having a whole bunch of clinics – or whatever you want to call them – setting up shop in Hamtramck? Don’t we want to collect the new, additional tax revenue that these operations would produce?

Don’t we want to fill our empty commercial buildings?

Don’t we want people to flock to Hamtramck and spend their money?

Some on the council have to start thinking like a business would: It’s smart to offer what people want and need and it’s dumb to put up needless barriers.

State voters have overwhelmingly spoken: they want access to authorized medical marijuana.

Let’s get out of the way from preventing what is now a perfectly legal business. It’s time city officials to allow the marketplace thrive.