Lansing Must Enable The Will Of The People

[User]

Michigan voters this month overwhelmingly approved the use of marijuana for people with debilitating medical conditions.

The ballot-box victory rings hollow.

Sure, patients can possess and grow small quantities of the drug in Michigan starting on Dec. 4. But how are they supposed to get started without first breaking laws in order to take advantage of the new medical marijuana law?

Federal statutes make sale and possession of marijuana illegal. In Michigan, it's still illegal to sell marijuana.

Assuming, as the new law does, that patients or their registered caregivers have the green thumbs required to grow their own drug, their access to seeds is presumably confined by federal and state laws to illegal channels.

And, let's face it, not every person who might benefit from this new initiative is capable of growing their own medicinal weed.

Michigan lawmakers must bend to the will of the people who approved this measure. They must enact further laws that ensure people access to marijuana for medicinal purposes.

That, admittedly, will be a tough row to hoe.

The medical community remains unconvinced of marijuana's value as a medicine. Law enforcement officials are flatly against any legalization of the drug.

Legislators, however, should not forget the clear message sent on Election Day.

A majority of Michiganders across the state say it's OK to use marijuana to address medical conditions. The initiative that was petitioned onto the Nov. 4 ballot passed in every one of the state's 83 counties. It was approved statewide with an almost 2-1 ratio.

That's a voter mandate.

Legislators now must make it so.

The initiative as approved by voters merely plays footsie with the notion that patients may use an otherwise illegal street drug to alleviate their suffering.

Some legal means must be found to provide marijuana to patients who need it.

We know that state leaders are queasy over proposals that would call a halt, at least in part, on a never-ending war on illegal drugs. That's why the marijuana initiative got on the ballot - legislators would not take up the issue.

Now, they must, to ensure that the people of Michigan get what they want. Medical marijuana should be made available to people who cannot grow their own under the new law.

Considering the fierce opposition in some quarters to any use of marijuana, any proposal to allow a new industry to grow and sell marijuana for medical use would no doubt be declared dead upon arrival in Lansing.

But why not allow local health departments to dispense medical marijuana to patients that is grown, legally under the new law, by other patients or caregivers who have the time and talent to cultivate marijuana at a secure location at home? The marijuana would be donated; no money would change hands.

Or set up state-sanctioned shops that volunteers can run to do the same thing.

It's fine and dandy that a majority of Michiganders have allowed the medical use of marijuana.

Now make that law useful.

The state must set up a legal means for patients to get the medicinal marijuana that voters say they ought to have.


News Hawk: User: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: mlive.com
Copyright: 2008 mlive.com
Contact: MLive.com
Website: Medical marijuana: Lansing must enable the will of the people

[timireferseed]

I hope as a cronicaly ill person that I can get my medicine without the redtape