Pubdate: Sat, 14 Jan 2012
Source: Oakland Press, The (MI)
Copyright: 2012 The Oakland Press
Contact:  http://www.theoaklandpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2114

STATE MARIJUANA LAWS NEED TO BE CLARIFIED

A cat unsure of its welcome can creep into its owner's lap at a 
quarter-inch per second. Pussyfooting is how we see the moves toward 
full legalization of marijuana in Michigan, going back to the 2008 
campaign to legalize its medical use.

It seemed an open secret at the time that creeping toward full 
legalization was the ultimate goal.

Whatever Michigan residents thought about the initiative they 
eventually approved, its intent seemed clear enough: It would permit 
individuals with a physician's certification to use marijuana to grow 
up to a dozen plants for their own use. It would permit them to 
retain 2.5 ounces of marijuana from their own plants or from a 
grower, and permit a grower, a "caregiver," to grow up to 12 plants 
each for a maximum of five users.

The resulting enabling law goes no further than that.

But its enforcement and response from a community of users and 
growers has made a mishmash of the issue.

The law never envisioned dispensaries. It set out what seemed to be a 
very small cottage industry.

So subsequent rulings outlawing dispensaries, or any means of 
distribution other than that approved by voters and spelled out in 
the statute, seem to us simply to uphold the initiative and the law.

The outcry that has followed rulings outlawing dispensaries predicts 
dire consequences for those with various medical conditions and 
physicians' certificate, including images of little old ladies being 
forced to meet their seller out on a street corner.

The preamble to the enabling act notes that growing and use of 
marijuana remain illegal under federal law, but that virtually all 
arrests and prosecutions on marijuana charges in Michigan are under 
state law. If state laws are lenient, prosecution under federal law 
is unlikely.

So perhaps it's time to stop pussyfooting around the issue of 
legalizing marijuana in Michigan. Perhaps it's time to have a full 
discussion of the pros and cons.

Whatever the result, where marijuana is legal and where it's not need 
to be crystal clear.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart