Pubdate: Fri, 04 May 2012
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2012 Detroit Free Press
Contact: http://www.freep.com/article/99999999/opinion04/50926009
Website: http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Authors: Dawson Bell and Bill Laitner

BILLS SEEKING TO PROTECT MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS, CURB ABUSES PASS 
MICHIGAN HOUSE BY BIPARTISAN VOTE

LANSING -- Giving medical-marijuana users some things they asked for 
but also some they opposed, the state House passed a series of bills 
Thursday to modify Michigan's medical marijuana law.

The changes include rules for doctor-patient relationships and law 
enforcement access to the state's patient registry.

The four bills were adopted on broad, bipartisan votes, clearing the 
three-fourths-majority hurdle needed to amend a voter-enacted law. 
Similar majorities will be needed for approval in the state Senate 
before the changes become law, "but I do think we've sent a package 
they can adopt," said state Rep. John Walsh, R-Livonia, chairman of 
the House Judiciary Committee.

Backers of the package said the amendments were needed to clarify the 
act that state voters approved in November 2008 and that the 
regulations would protect legitimate patients while reining in 
potential abuses. Opponents of the package said some changes give 
police excessive power to snoop in state computers for names of 
registered patients.

"This leaves it open season to harass anyone pulled over with a 
driver's license," said Steven Greene, 46, of Lyon Township, a 
registered patient and host of the weekly "Medical Marijuana Radio 
Show" on WDTW-AM (1310).

The goal was to prevent police from breaking down doors and raiding 
homes of law-abiding users of the drug, Walsh said.

Lawmakers "felt that was awfully harsh and a waste of police 
resources when a simple review would show whether the home was owned 
by a (state-registered) caregiver or patient," he said. That bill in 
the package -- sponsored by state Rep. Gail Haines, R-Waterford -- 
would require the state's medical-marijuana cards to have photo IDs. 
And it would let police check the state's computers to verify the 
user's status if the person were pulled over for a traffic stop or if 
police had a complaint about marijuana being grown in a house, Walsh said.

Other medical-marijuana advocates applauded another change that would 
give registered patients the right to claim what's called an 
affirmative defense in court, something prosecutors and judges have 
often failed to uphold, attorney Matt Newburg said.

"We've had a lot of courts that don't even let the jury hear that a 
defendant is a state-approved patient or caregiver," said Newburg, 
who has offices in Detroit and Lansing.

Strengthening access to the affirmative defense and allowing users to 
cultivate marijuana outdoors as long as it's in a fully enclosed area 
were in a bill sponsored by state Rep. Philip Cavanagh, D-Redford Township.

"My sense is that this is only the first phase" of changes to the 
medical marijuana law, Cavanagh said.

The Legislature should "tackle the dispensary issue" by looking at 
how other states have licensed and taxed facilities that "provide 
safe distribution of this drug," he said.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette issued an opinion in August 
that said dispensaries and other facilities selling medical marijuana 
were illegal in Michigan.

One opponent of the bills, Rep. John Olumba, D-Detroit, said he was 
impressed by the level of attention the legislation received, but not 
convinced that the changes wouldn't unnecessarily complicate the 
lives of marijuana patients.

Although Olumba said he opposes drug use generally, medical marijuana 
has proved to be genuinely helpful to some of his constituents.

"People with serious illness will have to go through a lot of stress 
and strain," Olumba said. "That sounds like Big Government."

But Rep. Chuck Moss, R-Birmingham, said clarifying the rules was 
probably overdue.

Moss said he wasn't necessarily a supporter of the 2008 ballot 
proposal, but "63% of the people in this state voted for it." 
Unfortunately, he said, the ballot proposal failed to answer many of 
the practical questions about how medical marijuana should be handled.

"It was like legalizing driving without establishing any rules of the 
road," Moss said.

Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, voted against all four bills and said 
he thinks the Legislature should leave the issue of medical marijuana 
alone, for now.

Irwin, who called overall drug policy in the U.S. and Michigan 
"insane," said he was apprehensive about the possibility of 
increasing law enforcement involvement in administration of the law 
(by changes in access to the registry) when "the top law enforcement 
official in the state has gone rogue," a reference to Schuette's 
rigid interpretation of several of the voter-approved law's provisions.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom