Pubdate: Tue, 18 Feb 2014
Source: Times Herald, The (Port Huron, MI)
Copyright: 2014 The Times Herald
Contact: http://www.thetimesherald.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.thetimesherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2570
Cited: The Ruling
http://publicdocs.courts.mi.gov:81/opinions/final/sct/20140206_s145816_78_terbeek-op.pdf
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - U.S.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

MEDICAL POT STATUTE STILL NEEDS WORK

If more tolerance for marijuana use and even its limited legalization 
in some states are becoming a trend, Michigan's experience has been 
much more problematic. Marijuana use in the state has been a disputed 
practice lawmakers must clarify.

When voters approved the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act in 2008, the 
state became a forerunner. The law made the drug available under 
physicians' authorization to patients who need it to relieve pain and 
other medical conditions.

But the law encountered a range of obstacles from legal disputes 
about who could grow medical marijuana and where it could be sold. A 
Michigan Supreme Court decision has provided some clarity, but the 
law is far from clear.

The court unanimously ruled this month that municipalities cannot ban 
medical marijuana within their boundaries, a victory for supporters 
of the law who have battled efforts to circumvent it.

A year ago, the state's highest court ruled that dispensaries that 
permit patient-to-patient medical marijuana sales are not protected 
by the medical pot law, a decision the law's opponents interpreted as 
grounds to shut them down.

"Dispensaries will have to close their doors. Sales or transfers 
between patients or between caregivers and patients other than their 
own are not permitted under the Medical Marijuana Act," Michigan 
Attorney General Bill Schuette said in a written statement.

The attorney general's assertion came despite the court's 
clarification that direct sales of medical marijuana between patients 
and caregivers is legal. Justices said a previous appeals court 
decision was wrong to assert the medical marijuana law prohibits such sales.

Although many dispensaries continue to operate, they do so with some 
uncertainty about the medical marijuana law's provisions.

The Supreme Court's latest decision affirms the dispensaries' right 
to operate. The ban some municipalities imposed said that because 
marijuana is illegal under federal law, that medical marijuana was 
illegal, too. Last year, the Justice Department said it would not 
block states from relaxing laws on marijuana's medical and recreational use.

Michigan's law still faces a problem that has plagued it from the 
start: clarification from the state Legislature. The law should be 
clear about who can sell the drug and where -- and that's up to our lawmakers.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom