Apply Balance in Medical Marijuana Laws

[Jacob Bell]

One thing is clear as the state and its communities adapt to life after voters approved medical marijuana: It's time to reduce the hyperbole and restore rational discussion about the legal use of the drug.

That's true from the state Legislature, where multiple bills would shape (some would argue narrow) the rules governing access to medical marijuana, to the city of Lansing, where discussion of regulating dispensaries has grown heated.

First, consider that discussions and disagreements are a natural part of the process of adjusting to the new reality in which a large majority of the state's voters made it clear they support access to marijuana for its legitimate medical uses.

This is not the time or place for the pro and con arguments about legalization of recreational marijuana. This is the time to craft thoughtful and logical rules about medical marijuana.

At the state level, some of the many bills make sense. There is no need, for example, to create social clubs or bars for medical marijuana patients to come together in using the drug. People don't gather for their daily dose of blood pressure medication; nor should they for their medical marijuana. Banning those businesses makes sense.

Both the state and the city are considering rules to keep such buildings 1,000 feet from schools, day cares, churches, etc. That concern rings less true, given that some pharmacies are within that range of such locations. Prescription drugs, after all, are a growing category of drug abuse and illicit drug sales, yet there is no effort to force pharmacies to move.

A pending state bill to create a database of medical marijuana card holders available for law enforcement has arguments on both sides. There is some safety for card holders if, for example, officers at a traffic stop know that they are legal registered users vs. illicit recreational users. But using that data to target registered users should be prohibited.

A bill to block legal marijuana users from suing under the marijuana law should not pass. Legal users need that remedy available as the state goes through this transitional time.

As for Lansing, a moratorium on new dispensaries is set to expire on Friday. A proposed ordinance, which ties rigorous safety and security requirements to a license, met heated opposition. Citizens should hope the thoughtful minds that crafted the proposal will prevail in passing the well-reasoned ordinance.


News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: lansingstatejournal.com
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Copyright: lansingstatejournal.com
Website: Apply balance in medical marijuana laws

 

[DeluxHD]

Did you even look into the laws they are trying to pass...your mostly right on Bill 17 that will limit dispensing locations, even tho Compassionate Apothecary in Lansing Michigan charges an annual fee to members...but no members are allowed to use on site...which is how most of them in the state operate...minus a few compassion clubs but usually there is no fee at them places...as for Bill 99 that you didn't even mention...found here Michigan Legislature - Senate Bill 0099 (2011)
they are trying to circumvent the will of the people by just making it illegal to posses a Schedule I drug weather you are a patient with the state registry or not, pretty sketchy if you ask me on Lansing's part...here is a bit more on a hearing that was recently held

 

[DeluxHD]

PS...look at https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billintroduced/Senate/pdf/2011-SIB-0377.pdf notice the bold at the end...so they are just going to arrest us still and find out after as it uses the terms INDIVIDUAL IN CUSTODY...Lansing needs to pull their heads outta the sand and come up with some realistic plan to make this work

 

[DeluxHD]

Please ask Senator Rick Jones what he is trying to pull over on Michigan residents...Senator Rick Jones :: 24th District

 

[Wyliedog]

Regarding legalization, I think it would be a good beginning if everyone would quit referring to marijuana as a drug:

It's time to reduce the hyperbole and restore rational discussion about the legal use of the drug.

It's a plant, an herb, a weed, whatever. A drug comes in a capsule or tablet or syringe or powder. Tobacco is not called a drug, as addictive as it is. Either is alcohol as intoxicating as it is, it's called a "beverage."

H.R. 2306 the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011, introduced by Congressmen Barney Frank and Ron Paul that would allow states to legalize and regulate marijuana without federal interference.

Go there to tell Congress whether you support or oppose it, they need to be bombarded on this issue by "free" Americans.

From a recent article posted on 420:

The moral case for legalization stems from a reverence for individual autonomy — the notion that each of us owns his own body, and none of us has the right to tell another what to do with it. Family and friends might plead with someone to change his ways, but the government has no moral authority to make him. Conservatives, who generally abhor government paternalism and consider freedom an unalloyed good, do not look nimble when they clumsily pirouette from denouncing Obamacare and the food police to embracing life sentences for pot smokers.