Pubdate: Tue, 6 Jan 2009
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Copyright: 2009 The Detroit News
Contact:  http://detnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/126
Author: Gary Heinlein, Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Cited: Michigan Medical Marihuana Program http://www.michigan.gov/mmp
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Michigan+Department+of+Community+Health
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Marijuana+Policy+Project

PROPOSED STATE MED POT RULES RILE USERS

LANSING -- State officials are proposing overly restrictive rules 
that would undo the intent of compassionate medical marijuana law 
that voters approved in November, backers of the new measure claim.

At a hearing Monday on proposed rules to govern medical marijuana 
use, supporters especially objected to requirements that patients and 
caregivers keep inventories of the marijuana grown for medical use.

Some said a tentative rule against public use could mean patients 
would face prosecution for smoking pot on their front porches, or in 
their living rooms with the drapes open.

Others said proposed security requirements for medical marijuana 
would mean the state is putting tighter restrictions on pot than on 
more dangerous prescription drugs, such as the pain reliever 
OxyContin that patients routinely keep in their medicine cabinets.

"It seems to me you are attempting an end-run of what the people 
wanted and voted for," said Ken Shapiro of East Lansing, who uses 
marijuana for metastatic melanoma that, he said, has afflicted him 
for 31 years.

Shapiro said he has been through radiation, chemotherapy and more 
than 50 surgeries for the spreading cancer.

"Marijuana helped me get through it," he said. "It should be taken 
for granted that seriously ill people are not dealing drugs."

While the new medical marijuana law technically is in effect now, the 
state health department is drafting rules to govern its use. 
Department officials, who want to finalize the rules by April 4, held 
Monday's hearing to give voice to those who'd be affected.

The new law allows patients with cancer, HIV, AIDS, glaucoma and 
other diseases to use marijuana to relieve symptoms on a doctor's 
recommendation.

Under the proposed rules, those qualified to grow and use marijuana 
would have to register yearly and be issued registration cards that 
could be revoked for criminal use or sales. Registered medical 
producers could supply no more than five patients each, and possess 
no more than 12 mature plants and 2.5 ounces of marijuana per 
patient. The plants and packets of drug would have to be kept in 
enclosed, locked facilities.

A potential producer said the health department's proposed disclosure 
and paperwork requirements would create a paper trail that could 
expose him to federal prosecution. Under federal law, any marijuana 
use or sale remains a crime.

"I won't follow the rules as they are now; I'll just keep growing 
marijuana as I have been," said Tom Higgins of Bay City, who said he 
cultivates marijuana and uses it because he believes it has kept him 
from dying of hepatitis.

Karen O'Keefe, state policies director for the Washington, D.C.-based 
Marijuana Policy project, said 12 other medical marijuana states 
don't require restrictions like those proposed for Michigan.

Voters approved appropriate safeguards "without requiring 
self-incrimination or making life overly difficult for the seriously 
ill patients whom 63 percent of Michigan voters chose to allow to use 
medical marijuana without fearing arrest," she said.

Desmond Mitchell, a State Bureau of Health Professions policy analyst 
who conducted the hearing, said officials "will review everything and 
take a look at what revisions need to be made" in the proposed rules. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake