From the moment Michigan voters approved legal weed, communities around the state began to grapple with a pressing question: How can we shut it down?

You might not think that'd be the first priority for elected officials in a state whose voters approved the sale and use of recreational marijuana last November by a solid 56-44 percent margin.

Yet when it comes to weed, many folks are of two minds: Using or buying it shouldn't be a crime, but ... do you really want a weed shop on your street?

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Metro Detroit communities Allen Park, Pontiac, Livonia, Northville, Birmingham, Troy and Grosse Pointe City are among the more than 60 cities and townships around the state that voted to opt out of the marijuana business since recreational use was approved last year.

It's a pattern that mirrors the aftermath of a successful 2008 ballot proposal that legalized medical marijuana. Few communities embraced medical marijuana businesses. In some communities that did green-light the businesses, targeted enforcement caused problems. And a big old bunch of weed dispensaries opened in Detroit.

That 2008 legislation was a muddle, leaving both communities and business owners in limbo until a host of licensing reforms passed the state Legislature in 2016.

Because Detroit was slow to promulgate its own regulations, some 250 medical marijuana dispensaries opened in the city. A 2015 survey by Detroit data firm Loveland found that medical marijuana dispensaries were clustered along the city's suburban borders, and its major thoroughfares, presumably in proximity to a suburban market that wanted access to medical marijuana without housing the dispensaries themselves.

Detroit struggled to get a handle on the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries within its limits. Detroit's City Council approved an ordinance to license and regulate those businesses in 2017, but a voter referendum that year complicated the process with a lengthy court battle.

Now, the city has more leeway to zone and regulate medical marijuana dispensaries within its borders, as council members hoped, striking the right balance between access to marijuana for patients in need and the safety and convenience of neighborhood residents, schools and churches.

Proposal 1 gave the state time to develop a regulatory and licensing framework around new marijuana businesses. That means recreational weed shops can't open in Michigan until December. So this time, cities have a minute to figure out what they're going to do.

Because Proposal 1 restricts applications for medical marijuana licenses, Detroit corporation counsel Lawrence Garcia says he doesn't expect an influx of new applications. Garcia anticipates that the city's medical marijuana zoning ordinance can be extended to apply to recreational marijuana establishments.

Proposal 1 doesn't offer reluctant cities much incentive to allow those businesses. Only cities that allow pot shops will get a portion of the taxes those businesses will pay, but Prop 1 set the tax rate low, compared to other states. The Legislature should fix that.

Voters in some of the cities that have opted out of recreational weed sales either rejected Prop 1, or approved it by small margins. Other suburban Detroit cities, like Ferndale, have opted to gather information on zoning and regulation before moving forward.

But I can tell you what's going to happen: Affluent communities that don't need the dollars Michigan's undertaxed future pot shops generate will say no to legal weed, and cities that need the cash will welcome new marijuana-related businesses. (It's true that some affluent Michigan cities have a more marijuana-friendly posture, but the conjunction of pro-weed and high median income makes for a pretty small Venn diagram (Oh, Hi, Ann Arbor).)

Detroit is part of another kind of Venn diagram: A city whose voters approved recreational weed by a hefty margin, with a still-recovering budget, and two years to avoid a repeat of 2008.

Nancy Kaffer is a Detroit Free Press columnist. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com.