Detroit Corporate Counsel Melvin “Butch” Hollowell said he expects to complete in December the process of shutting down the city’s medical marijuana dispensaries that do not comply with the zoning ordinance.

“I do believe we’ll get through the entire process by the end of the year,” he said.

Of the city’s 211 dispensaries that were counted earlier this year, the city filed 17 nuisance abatement cases and won them all. “Now we are filing against 66 facilities that are in Drug Free Zones that did not file an application to operate,” Hollowell said, adding that those dispensaries have two strikes against them. The law department is filing, on average, four to six cases a week. “There will be another phase after that and another phase after that,” he said.

Marijuana dispensaries were required to submit bids or applications to operate in the city beginning March 1. The deadline to submit the bids was March 31.

The medical marijuana dispensary zoning ordinance was passed late last year by the City Council. The ordinance, originally created by Detroit City Councilman James Tate, resulted from concerns about the proliferation of dispensaries in the city. [Read more at Crain’s Detroit Business]