Pubdate: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 Source: Detroit Free Press (MI) Copyright: 2008 Detroit Free Press Contact: http://www.freep.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125 Authors: Daniel Michael and Bill Schuette Note: Dr. Daniel Michael is a Detroit neurosurgeon and speaker of the Michigan State Medical Society's House of Delegates; Judge Bill Schuette is a member of the Michigan Court of Appeals. Write to them in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226 or at Daniel Michael http://www.mapinc.org/images/DanielMichael.jpg Photo: Bill Schuette http://www.mapinc.org/images/BillSchuette.jpg Cited: Proposal 1 http://stoparrestingpatients.org/ Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal) MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROPOSAL HAS UNHEALTHY SIDE EFFECTS FOR ALL A decade ago, voters in California approved a proposal to legalize marijuana smoking for so-called medical purposes. Today, even the proposal's most vocal supporters admit the California law has resulted in chaos, pot dealers in storefronts and millions of dollars being dumped into the criminal black market. Proposal 1 on the Nov. 4 ballot in Michigan is just like the California law. While its stated intent, to help people in serious pain, is well meaning, Proposal 1's vague language, careless loopholes and dangerous consequences place Michigan communities and kids at risk. Michigan voters should reject it. Proposal 1 allows one person to grow and provide marijuana for a number of other people, as long as the marijuana is kept in a locked facility. What happens when that locked facility is your neighbor's garage or a strip mall storefront, as they have in California? Maybe you think this can't happen in Michigan, but consider this: In North Hollywood, there are now more pot shops than Starbucks stores, and last week a security guard was gunned down outside a Los Angeles pot shop. Every day, diligent parents and teachers fight a difficult battle to protect teens from drugs and their influences. Law enforcement officials in California point to their state's marijuana law as a cause for the dramatic increase in drug use among high school students. That's a major reason why groups such as the Michigan Sheriffs' Association and the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police are opposed to Proposal 1. For doctors and hospitals, those on the front lines of medical care, Proposal 1 is bad medicine. For one thing, Proposal 1 doesn't require a prescription. It not only relies on but promotes smoking as a delivery mechanism. And Proposal 1 could result in costly lawsuits over such things as whether doctors and hospitals must allow patients to smoke marijuana in a doctor's office or hospital room, despite every other law banning smoking. The Michigan State Medical Society, the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, and the Michigan Osteopathic Association all oppose Proposal 1 because smoking marijuana is not the answer to the important scientific questions surrounding the effective care of patients. A legal analysis of Proposal 1 outlines a situation where the worker next to you on the assembly line or the driver of a delivery van could smoke marijuana on the job and your employer could do nothing about it. In fact, if that delivery van driver, or any other driver under the influence of "medical" marijuana for that matter, hits another car and injures someone, Proposal 1 may allow marijuana use as a defense in court. Lastly, Proposal 1 would leave the regulation of a "medical" marijuana program up to Lansing to figure out. With Michigan facing such tough economic times, taxpayers can't afford a new government bureaucracy to keep track of marijuana users. Proposal 1 is many things, but above all else it is a law of unintended consequences. The dangerous implications of its flaws and loopholes have brought together Michigan's doctors, hospitals, sheriffs, police chiefs, prosecutors, family groups, and taxpayer advocates to urge voters to say no to Proposal 1. California's medical marijuana proposal brought chaos; Michigan's proposal brings an opportunity to learn from California's mistake.