The Royal Oak City Commission earlier this year approved a controversial ordinance that allows medical patients to use -- but now grow -- marijuana within city limits. The Royal Oak City Commission earlier this year approved a controversial ordinance that allows medical patients to use -- but now grow -- marijuana within city limits.

But within the week, two patients sued in an attempt to overturn the ordinance, arguing the growing rules unnecessarily restrict access to a drug approved for medicinal use by Michigan voters in 2008.

It appears Royal Oak won't let the ordinance go down without a fight.

The Daily Tribune reports the City Commission has approved up to $18,000 in legal defense spending, a figure city attorney David Gillam said should cover the costs of a potential appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

And Royal Oak isn't alone. It's one of five Oakland County communities spending to defend its war on legal drugs.

"Five Oakland County communities are being sued," Paul Tylenda, an attorney representing Royal Oak multiple sclerosis patient Christopher Frizzo, told the newspaper. "I hear all these intangible arguments of property values going down. Well, here’s a real cost, and it’s just going to get worse. That's just the initial deposit."