JACKSON, MI -- Businesses that provide

in Jackson got at least a temporary reprieve Tuesday night when the

delayed a vote on whether to ban medical marijuana dispensaries.

The Jackson City Council considered

But council members voted 7-0 to again send the matter to the city affairs committee for more study and to the City Planning Commission to consider zoning changes related to the ordinance.

Still, some council members expressed a willingness to place restrictions on medical marijuana, which Michigan voters approved in 2008.

"The federal government has not legalized this," said Mayor Martin Griffin, drawing audible protests from advocates of medical marijuana in the audience. "It's not legal."

Councilman Andrew Frounfelker, who made the motion to return the package of three ordinances to committee, offered support for dispensaries.

"Personally I think there's some concerns about people operating out of their homes, not going to proper dispensaries. I'd like to see dispensaries, myself," Frounfelker said.

"If there's going to be some type of regulation or oversight of this, at least you can do it at a location that's more centralized than several homes across the community," he said.

Councilman Daniel Greer said he wanted the council to take its time because state legislators and the courts are dealing with questions about the state law.

"And if we bring this back at the July meeting, maybe some of these things will be worked out in the Legislature or the courts," Greer said. "It really is, I believe, the state's duty to sort this out."

The City Council did vote Tuesday to approve a six-month extension to a temporary ban on any new medical marijuana establishments. The moratorium, unlike the proposed ordinance, does not apply to existing dispensaries.

City Council members first approved the moratorium in January 2011 as a way to regulate medical marijuana while officials worked on an ordinance.

At Tuesday's meeting, several supporters of one of the handful of dispensaries in the city, the Jackson Compassion Club at 1620 E. Michigan Ave., spoke against forcing dispensaries to close.

"I feel positive that they're going to review it and take a look at how dispensaries can operate in the city and not just remove us as a whole," Jackson Compassion Club Director Roger Maufort said following the vote.

During the meeting, council members heard from medical marijuana patients who included a military veteran who said the drug helped him replace his wheelchair with a cane.

Steve Spranger of Jackson said many veterans use medical marijuana to help them deal with post-traumatic-stress disorder and pain.

"This gives us the ability to sleep at night, to have a decent night's sleep," Spranger told the council. "It's keeping me out of a wheelchair."

Painkillers and muscle-relaxers didn't work for him, Spranger said, but marijuana did.

For more information about Tuesday's Jackson City Council meeting, including coverage of the debate over the city accepting a $1.9-million federal grant to hire more firefighters, go to the Citizen Patriot's live coverage.