Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jan 2012
Source: Oakland Press, The (MI)
Copyright: 2012 The Oakland Press
Contact:  http://www.theoaklandpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2114
Author: Ryan Richmond
Note: Ryan Richmond, 34, of Royal Oak, is an active investor and a 
member of the Marijuana Patients Organization 
(marijuanapatients.org), an advocacy group in Troy that aims to 
protect the rights of Michigan medical marijuana patients.

ACCESS TO MARIJUANA FOR MEDICAL USE IN DANGER

This is what they warned us would happen.

With the latest news that a group of individuals are trying to get a 
marijuana legalization question on the ballot in November, the 
familiar critics have come out to deride the current medical 
marijuana law as a Trojan horse for legalization. While many may 
think this is exactly what all patients and caregivers want, it is 
actually the actions of our own state government, specifically 
Attorney General Bill Schuette, that have forced the hand of 
proponents of safe access to marijuana for medical uses in the State 
of Michigan.

We have a situation where an adult with a qualifying condition and 
state card -- obtained by supplying medical records as well as the 
recommendation of a physician with which the patient has a 
relationship -- can legally obtain marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Apparently, this bar isn't high enough for Schuette. even though 
marijuana is the only example of a drug that you would need to 
possess a special card from the state rather than a simple 
prescription. It's as if Schuette keeps setting the bar higher 
because he doesn't really want access to be obtained.

When the goal is unattainable and they feel they are being 
manipulated, people tend to cut corners, which is exactly what the 
move for legalization is predicated upon. The problem with this 
approach is that completely legalizing marijuana for recreational use 
by adults is not the solution to the problem caused an overzealous 
attorney general who aggressively seeks to restrict access to 
marijuana by those who truly benefit from it. We can, however, avoid 
the perils of outright legalization and protect the rights of 
patients at the same time by enacting new legislation that clearly 
outlines these rights and is written so clearly that it is 
unassailable by the attorney general.

Rather than turn marijuana into a common commodity like alcohol or 
tobacco, a more explicitly written law would go a long way to ensure 
that supply is restricted to those who are legitimately ill and those 
who are charged with their care. Outright legalization would create 
an unacceptably high risk of the drug coming into the possession of 
children and teens much in the way that other more available 
substances easily do. The path that the attorney general is forcing 
advocates down will result in either a too restrictive or unregulated 
situation. If the initiative fails, he will have the ammunition to 
hack away at the existing law, and if it succeeds, Michigan will 
become a state of "Budtenders," a common title in Amsterdam, rather 
than a state of caregivers.

How about we shore up the existing law rather than abandon it 
entirely for one extreme or another?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom