Ambiguous laws regarding medical marijuana continue to cause confusion for local law enforcement officials.

The Northwest Macomb Prevention Coalition (NWMPC) learned that the law, voted in by Michigan residents in 2008, is still causing problems for law enforcement agencies that are already stretched too thin.

The NWMPC learned of the difficulties medical marijuana laws are causing from John Gemellaro, an assistant prosecutor with the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office.

The NWMPC asked him to give his thoughts and knowledge on the subject as opposed to speaking on behalf of his office.

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Deb Derry knows too many teens who have tried "spice" and regretted it.

Derry, a counselor at Mt. Pleasant High School and Oasis Alternative High School, knows one student who smoked synthetic marijuana three to five times a week and went into a psychotic episode. Another student used the drug once and won't do it again.

Still another smoked the legal drug that is labeled as incense or potpourri and not for human consumption, became addicted to the "bizarre" high and now needs to take Xanax, Ativan or another prescription drug to feel normal. That student overdosed on the prescription trying to "get down" from the high obtained by smoking spice.

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Regarding your thoughtful April 11 editorial ("Pot laws offer up high dose of absurdity"), the drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2010, there were 853,839 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession.

At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use.

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Canadian Medicinal Marijuana Producers Are Trying To Put Down U.S. Roots

The sprawling copper mine that stretches deep below White Pine once employed thousands of people, helping make the remote Michigan town a thriving outpost of the state's northern hinterland.

Prices for the metal started to plummet, however, forcing the facility to shut down in 1996 and leaving White Pine a virtual ghost town. Suburban bungalows that once housed copper miners and their families now sell to vacationers for as little as $10,000.

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If President Barack Obama had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin. So the president famously said.

And the president's son would thereby find himself at significantly greater risk of running afoul of the so-called War on Drugs than, say, a son of George W. Bush. Depending on what state he lived in, a Trayvon Obama might be 57 times more likely than a Trayvon Bush to be imprisoned on drug charges.

This is not because he would be 57 times more likely to commit a drug crime. To the contrary, white American men commit the vast majority of the nation's drug crimes, but African-American men do the vast majority of the nation's drug time. It is a nakedly racial disparity that should leave the U.S. Department of "Justice" embarrassed to call itself by that name.

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WHITE PINE - In this hard-luck town in Michigan's western Upper Peninsula, rumors persist of a company growing pot deep in the bowels of a former copper mine nearby.

In 2010, the rumors got so bad, the State Police contacted the owners and asked to inspect the White Pine Mine sometime in the next couple of days.

"No, right now, " SubTerra official Mark Pierpont said he told them, not wanting lingering suspicions that he had spent a day hiding a stash of marijuana.

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In five brief pages full of legal reasoning and bereft of common sense, the Michigan Court of Appeals has, for all intents and purposes, rendered the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act useless.

On April 17, the court published its opinion in People v. Koon, holding that the MMMA does not contain an exemption for drivers under the state's criminal code, which prohibits operating a vehicle with any amount of a Schedule I controlled substance in your system.

The problem is that, unlike the other Schedule I drugs such as heroin and meth, the main active compound in marijuana, known as THC, stores in your fat cells, keeping it in your body for weeks, well after its affects have worn off, and no accurate test has been developed to determine when active THC becomes a harmless byproduct.

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If a 21-year-old is caught by police smoking marijuana, he could face a 90-day jail term. The sentence will be longer if that person is selling marijuana.

But if the same person is smoking a tobacco cigarette, he soon will face only disturbing pictures, such as a cadaver on a slab or an image of smoke coming from a tracheotomy hole. Barring a courtroom challenge, the federal government will this year require such photos to be prominently displayed on all cigarette packs sold in America.

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VASSAR -- The Vassar city council voted to authorize the first reading of a Medical Marijuana Ordinance during its regular session on Monday and will proceed with a public hearing on the topic during its May 7 meeting.

The City of Vassar is currently under a moratorium regarding medical marijuana that will expire in May 2012. The city's planning commission approved a drafted ordinance at its February meeting and recommended it go before council for adoption.

The ordinance states that marijuana can be possessed and used in the City of Vassar only in accordance with and pursuant to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act. The ordinance also states, among other regulations, that dispensaries would not be allowed within the city.

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There was more politicking than in years past -- and seemingly less marijuana smoking -- at Saturday's 41st annual Hash Bash on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor.

A swarm of marijuana buffs gathered as usual at what they call high noon on U-M's outdoor Diag plaza to cheer speakers with shouts of "Free the weed!"

Some discreetly smoked pot while public safety officers stood a stone's throw away, making 13 arrests for marijuana possession, according to the U-M Department of Public Safety.

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Ann Arbor- Thousands of marijuana supporters rallied Saturday in support of legalization of the drug at the University of Michigan Diag.

The 41st annual Hash Bash began at high noon and featured medicinal users, caregivers and supporters of marijuana.

Charmie Gholson, communications director for Safer Michigan Repeal Marijuana Prohibition 2012, and Charles Ream, coordinator for the Safer Michigan Coalition, were emcees for the event.

This year activists collected signatures to amend the Michigan Constitution to allow for marijuana use for all reasons for adults at least 21 years old. The group has about 15,000 signatures so far of the 323,000 needed to get the issue on the November ballot, officials said.

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Police say TLC Services was selling marijuana illegally; later in day cops bust an indoor grass-growing operation.L.

SOUTH HAVEN - A South Haven medical marijuana dispensary business is the target of a police probe into illegal marijuana sales.

TLC Services, 1425 Kalamazoo St., was raided by Van Buren County Sheriff's narcotics officers and other law enforcement officers at 12:30 p.m. Thursday as part of a police investigation, Sgt. Jim Dietz reported.

Police seized marijuana and hashish, business records and computers, along with scales and packaging materials. Also, $4,731 in cash was seized under civil forfeiture laws.

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With a stack of petitions in his car, Tom Tucker went straight from his overnight shift last week to stand outside the Royal Oak post office with a clipboard.

"Do you what to sign a petition to legalize marijuana?" Tucker asked as people filed past.

Don Jones, a professional photographer, signed right away.

"We voted on (medical marijuana), and now the big shots keep dreaming up ways to stop us from using it," said Jones, 62, of Pleasant Ridge.

So did 19-year-old Jasmine Hunt of Troy.

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Did Cop's Use of Informant Lead to Her Death?

This is an ugly story.

It's tragic and damning of the War on Drugs. The story seems like the plot of a television detective series such as The Closer or Law and Order but it is sadly a true tale of law and disorder. Michelle "Shelley" Hilliard went missing in the early hours of Oct. 23. Nearly three weeks later, her burned, dismembered body was found near I-94 on Detroit's east side. Once the body was identified, the killing was at first considered a hate crime because Hilliard was transgendered and there had been a recent trend of attacks against gays where burning was involved.

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MASON - The Mason Planning Commission forwarded an ordinance change to the city council that it has worked on since 2010.

The ordinance prohibits a business from the sale or distribution of marijuana for medical use in the city of Mason. It was approved by the planning commission at its March 13 meeting and will now go to the Mason City Council on March 19.

Mason Zoning and Development Manager David Haywood said the public hearing on March 13 yielded no comments from the public on the issue, which started back when the city placed a moratorium on any new business of that nature.

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While Lansing hashes out what to do with the medical marijuana law, the city of Milan is putting the brakes on dispensaries.

The City Council voted 6-1 March 12 to impose a 180-day moratorium on any business that seeks to dispense or distribute medical marijuana. The hope is that this will give the state Legislature time enough to consider bills that add some rules to the law voters approved in 2008.

The law allows people to grow and use marijuana for medical purposes, but is unclear regarding the sale and distribution of the drug. Local law enforcement has been stymied on how to enforce a state law that is in direct contradiction to federal laws.

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Michigan voters couldn't have been more clear about their intentions when they approved the Medical Marihuana Act by an overwhelming margin in 2008. They wanted to make marijuana legally available to people with chronic illnesses. Unfortunately, the law itself could hardly have been more vague. Its hazy language has created a legal mess that we'll be sorting out in the courts for the next couple of decades - unless either the Legislature or medical marijuana advocates themselves step in to provide much-needed clarity.

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Appeals Court Rules to Bring Decriminalization to A Vote

Decriminalization of the recreational use of marijuana might be on the ballot this November in Detroit, and perhaps statewide.

The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in favor of The Coalition for a Safer Detroit in its lawsuit against the Detroit Election Commission on February 10. The coalition filed the lawsuit after the commission voted to exclude a decriminalization proposal from the 2010 ballot, despite a successful petition to include it.

In the 2-1 decision, the court declared the decriminalization proposal should have appeared on the 2010 ballot. This ruling will force the proposal to appear on the next viable Detroit election ballot.

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Michigan's medical marijuana program should be better regulated but is in peril because of a "serious perception problem" in Lansing and the legal system, Howell attorney Denise Pollicella said.

On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee took testimony from medical marijuana organizations on legislation that would create new requirements for registered medical marijuana patients.

Pollicella said the Republican-led Legislature is trying to revamp on a piecemeal basis what many consider a vague law.

"My overall take is that until medical cannabis begins to be viewed as an actual alternative form of medication first instead of as a controlled substance, (an) illicit substance ... we are not going to get anywhere," she said.

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Tensions between Ann Arbor's medical marijuana licensing board and the city attorney's office are behind a resolution on the City Council's agenda Monday night.

The resolution seeks to halt enforcement activities against dispensaries in Ann Arbor until council members can decide on changes to the city's medical marijuana regulations.

Sponsoring the resolution is Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward, who serves as the council liaison on the citizen-led licensing board.

The board is asking the council to clarify the city staff's role in the dispensary-licensing process and wants City Attorney Stephen Postema to delay further action regarding medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities - except for claims that they're in the wrong zoning district - until council makes a decision on amending the city's ordinances.

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