Pubdate: Fri, 24 Dec 2010
Source: Daily Tribune, The (Royal Oak, MI)
Copyright: 2010 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.dailytribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1579
Authors: Mike Householder and Tim Martin, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)

MICHIGAN'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW SHROUDED IN HAZE

LANSING - Michigan's two-year-old law allowing the use of marijuana 
for medical purposes is leaving communities, courts, patients and 
police locked in disputes over what is legal and what isn't.

Many patients who have the state's OK to use marijuana to ease their 
pain from conditions ranging from cancer to Crohn's disease have been 
arrested and others have been fired because of different 
interpretations of the law approved by Michigan voters in late 2008. 
Courts face a rash of medical marijuana cases, with the law raising 
so many questions one state appeals court judge described reading it 
as a "maze."

Local governments are jumping in and passing their own ordinances, 
mostly trying to limit, ban or regulate a wave of businesses popping 
up to grow and sell the drug.

Michigan isn't alone in trying to sort out hazy medical marijuana 
laws. Fourteen other states have similar statutes - prompting raids 
and debate over local regulations in California, disputes over which 
doctors can recommend pot in Colorado and fights over proposed 
regulations in New Jersey.

Many of the clashes are between medical marijuana advocates who say 
they're acting within the law and police who say they aren't. Adding 
to the tension is federal law that continues to ban the use and 
possession of marijuana. Although it won't be a top priority for 
lawmakers in a state swamped by economic and state government budget 
problems, Michigan's next Legislature likely will devote some time to 
clarifying the law.

A class on legal issues is a staple at Med Grow Cannabis College in 
Southfield, one of the few medical marijuana trade schools in the 
nation. Nick Tennant, who last year opened up the trade school in 
suburban Detroit, said the goal of the class is to provide students 
some clarity about a law that has gray areas.

"A lot of people want definitive answers," Tennant, 25, said. "It's 
just hard, because sometimes the attorneys can't really give a 
definitive answer. They can give almost a 'best practices, here's how 
you stay out of trouble, don't raise your risk tolerance in this gray 
area' type of thing."

The school also provides students with instruction on the medical and 
horticultural aspects of growing pot for medicinal use.

"We don't want the people and the public to be afraid of us or to 
think we're drug dealers, because that's really a popular 
misconception as well. We're here to help," said Travis Williams, a 
38-year-old Detroiter who took classes at the school and now provides 
marijuana he grows himself to patients.

Michigan's more than 45,000 licensed medical marijuana patients can 
possess up to 21/2 ounces of usable marijuana and have up to 12 
plants kept in an enclosed, locked facility - or have a registered 
caregiver grow the drug for them.

Some police agencies want a better system to verify the authenticity 
of authorization cards. Physicians must certify patients would 
benefit from the pain-reducing aspects of marijuana, but it's left to 
the patients to register with the state and to self-regulate the 
amount and quality of the drug they take.

"There is absolutely no connection to medicine and what's going on 
with medical marijuana right now," said Oakland County Sheriff Mike 
Bouchard. "You don't have a required patient-doctor relationship. You 
don't go to a state-licensed, inspected and regulated facility like a 
pharmacy. ... It's creating already a lot of problems and a lot of 
misconceptions."

Advocates of medical marijuana say nothing in the law prohibits 
dispensaries and collective growing facilities, and that communities 
are ignoring the will of Michigan voters by cracking down on those 
businesses. Advocates of the law say it's broad by design to protect 
a wide range of activities.

Many Michigan communities have said state law isn't clear or is 
largely silent on how the drug can be grown and distributed by anyone 
other than patients or caregivers, or how plants and seeds can be 
bought in the first place.

Oakland County narcotics agents raided two medical marijuana 
dispensaries this summer after they sold the drug to deputies 
carrying phony state ID cards. The city of Lansing recently adopted 
an ordinance banning the opening of any new medical marijuana 
businesses until July, in hopes of buying enough time for local 
officials to draft rules for their operation.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the southeast Michigan 
cities of Livonia, Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills and joined a 
lawsuit against the west Michigan city of Wyoming over policies it 
says effectively ban the use of medical marijuana.

Local governments counter that they are trying to make sure illegal 
drug dealing and other crimes don't take place in the absence of a 
clear state law.

Individual patients also have run into trouble with police or 
employers. Joseph Casias, authorized by the state to use marijuana 
because of pain associated with cancer, lost his job at a Wal-Mart 
store in Battle Creek in 2009 after testing positive for pot. He's 
battling the company in court.

Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Peter O'Connell wrote in a September 
opinion that the law is susceptible to multiple interpretations and 
that reading it "carelessly or out of context could result in jail or 
prison time for many of our citizens." He urged state officials to 
clear up contradictions and vague areas in the voter-approved law.

Ari Adler, a spokesman for incoming Republican House Speaker Jase 
Bolger, said "the level of confusion" that exists related to the law 
likely will prompt the new Legislature to address it during the 
2011-12 session.  
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake