Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Calumet Village Council member Virginia Dwyer explains the reasons why the council made the decision not to act on the Medical Marijuana act. Although that is the decision the council made, it was not a unanimous vote.

CALUMET — While several residents of the village of Calumet voiced their opinions and thoughts to the Council regarding medical marijuana, trustee Virginia Dwyer offered a response and an explanation for why the Council took no action regarding the Medical Marijuana Act.

“We looked at this issue for months and months, and months,” Dwyer said. “We had special meetings, special this, special that. What it boiled down to is, we were just like 95 percent plus of the entire (Upper Peninsula) — every jurisdiction of the U.P. Ninety-five percent of jurisdictions have decided to opt out or do nothing at this time until they see how this thing is going to progress.”

She said that is the position the Council took.

“We, as a group,” she said, “never had the intention to say ‘this is no forever,’ ‘this is yes forever.’ We wanted to see how it was going to proceed.”

There is a high likelihood that the marijuana issue will be decided on the ballot, Dwyer said, and either it will or will not pass.

“We took a wait-and-see attitude, just like 95 percent of all jurisdictions in the U.P., so we’re not the only people that decided to do nothing at this time. I just want to make that clear.”

Dave Geisler, village president, affirmed Dwyer’s statement, saying that after going online and searching, he found four townships and one city in the Upper Peninsula that had passed ordinances related to medical marijuana.

“And you have to also understand,” Dwyer continued, “that we have to make good decisions for this whole jurisdiction. What it’s going to entail with law enforcement, with regulations, with everything.

“We took a wait-and-see to see how it’s going to fit for this village. That’s why we made the decision to do nothing.”

Dwyer said she acknowledges the number of care-givers, and their responsibility to their patients, but as a governing body, the council must be cautious for the entire village.

“Now, bear in mind, too, that anyone that is a care-giver that has patients, and there’s a lot of them,” Dwyer said. “(Medical marijuana) is still available to them, and there’s a dispensary in Houghton.

“It isn’t like it’s gone forever. There’s ways they can get their medicine. But I have sympathy for people that have pain and things like that, but we have to make good decisions for this village, and that’s why that decision was made.”