Capac Village President John Grzyb is in an awkward spot. So are most other local elected officials in St. Clair and Sanilac counties. They could have a bit of explaining to do in about seven and a half months.

Under the latest iteration of the state’s troubled medical marijuana rules, local governments must choose whether to participate in the medical marijuana industry. In St. Clair County, Capac appears most likely to opt in when the village council votes on proposed local medical marijuana ordinances April 2. No other community in the two counties has yet to set up a local mechanism for providing patients with medical marijuana.

That’s not unusual. The list of communities participating in the new medical marijuana regime is remarkably small. Only 37 of Michigan’s 83 counties have local governments willing to hand out local licenses. Some, such as Lansing, have provisions but don’t appear likely to use them.

Near here, Macomb, Oakland, Lapeer and Tuscola communities have signed on. Medical marijuana users will be facing long drives.

Grzyb isn’t exactly saying, but he is probably opposed to marijuana businesses opening in Capac. Part of his concern is that whatever the village does in April, voters could turn the entire issue on its head in November.

A group seeking the legalize the recreational use of marijuana by adults has turned in about 350,000 petition signatures to get the issue on the November ballot — about 100,000 more than it needed. Although the state Board of Canvassers could still find a reason to keep the proposal off the ballot, that doesn’t appear likely.

What does appear likely is that voters will approve the measure. In recent polls, about 60 percent of Michigan residents said they would vote in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana use. In 2008, that was just about the same percentage that voted to legalize medical use of marijuana.

That, we suppose, puts us in the minority. Gun battles in the far corners of Sanilac County; kidnap and torture in St. Clair County; drug raids that turn up marijuana, guns and heroin have not persuaded us that marijuana is harmless. Legalizing it for recreational use will benefit only those who make a profit from it.

Unlike Grzyb, though, we recognize we are on the wrong side of the debate.

When local officials say that nobody wants the marijuana industry in their communities, they are speaking only for themselves. They probably are not speaking for the 60 percent of their constituent voters who are looking forward to having their say in November.

But Grzyb is correct in worrying that it will be another disaster on a par with the medical marijuana fiasco that Lansing has spent most of a decade fixing but still doesn’t work.

— Times Herald (Port Huron)