420
Founder
If city voters today pass an ordinance allowing the medical use of marijuana, what will it change?
Nothing -- according to police here and in Ann Arbor, where voters passed a similar measure last year.
But several Ferndale elected officials and others predict City Proposal D will gain voter approval -- chiefly because people tend to see it as an issue of compassion to allow people with serious illnesses the right to use pot for the symptomatic relief of diseases such as AIDS and multiple sclerosis or side effects of chemotherapy.
Voters in Detroit also passed a medical pot law last year.
In Ann Arbor, where simple possession of small amounts of marijuana is a civil infraction, Police Chief Daniel Oates says the medical marijuana measure there didn't change anything.
Ann Arbor voters passed it by a 3-1 margin.
"It was a wonderful compassionate statement by the voters," said Oates, who is leaving Ann Arbor soon for another chief's job in Aurora, Colo. "But as a practical matter there is no such thing as a medical marijuana product recognized by the FDA and available via prescription ... for treatment of an ill person. As a practical matter such a law has no effect."
Police policies and procedures regarding marijuana remain unchanged in Ann Arbor.
In a city of 114,000, Ann Arbor police prosecute less than 10 people a year for simple marijuana possession, Oates said. Typically, those are cases where authorities have pursued a suspect for marijuana sales but are unable to prove the intent to deliver the drug.
"The only time we bring a case is for sale" of marijuana, Oates said.
No matter what ordinances an individual community passes, marijuana is still illegal under federal and state law. And those laws supersede municipal ordinances, authorities say.
In Ferndale, resident and University of Michigan student Donal O'Leary III is head of the Ferndale Coalition for Compassionate Care that got the pot issue on the ballot with a petition drive.
O'Leary indicated the ordinance would send a message that residents don't want police using tax funds to pursue those who use marijuana to treat an illness.
If Proposal D passes today, an officer who works to prosecute a patient using marijuana "would be going against the will of Ferndale residents who say that we don't want our neighbors prosecuted just for using the medicine they and their doctors agree is right for them," O'Leary said.
Ferndale Capt. Timothy Collins, a 27-year veteran of the department said that to his knowledge no one has ever been arrested in Ferndale and used a medical marijuana defense.
Like the Oakland County prosecutor's office, Ferndale police oppose Proposal D.
"We would charge under the state law rather than city ordinance in cases where there is a medical marijuana defense," Collins said, adding that someone may eventually make a court decide whether such ordinances are even legal.
"My fear is that unscrupulous people will use this kind of ordinance as an out," Collins said.
Run-of-the-mill marijuana possession is punishable as a 93-day misdemeanor or up to a year in jail under state law. Possession with intent to sell is a 5- to 15-year felony depending on the amount of pot a suspect is charged with having.
If medical marijuana proponents want to change the law they need to do so at the state and federal level, opponents say.
Ten states, mostly in the western U.S., have laws that allow medical pot. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that those state laws don't preclude federal law officers from charging marijuana users and dealers operating under state medical marijuana laws.
O'Leary said he and other proponents are focusing on community ordinances for medical marijuana to gauge support for policy reform.
A statewide effort would require greater resources and effort, he said.
"If this proves to be an issue people are really passionate about I suppose it is possible we would pursue it on a greater level," O'Leary said.
Meanwhile, community police faced with such ordinances say they are virtually meaningless in legalizing marijuana use, even for sick people.
Source: Daily Tribune, The (Royal Oak, MI)
Copyright: 2005 The Daily Tribune
Contact: editor@dailytribune.com
Website: Daily Tribune
Nothing -- according to police here and in Ann Arbor, where voters passed a similar measure last year.
But several Ferndale elected officials and others predict City Proposal D will gain voter approval -- chiefly because people tend to see it as an issue of compassion to allow people with serious illnesses the right to use pot for the symptomatic relief of diseases such as AIDS and multiple sclerosis or side effects of chemotherapy.
Voters in Detroit also passed a medical pot law last year.
In Ann Arbor, where simple possession of small amounts of marijuana is a civil infraction, Police Chief Daniel Oates says the medical marijuana measure there didn't change anything.
Ann Arbor voters passed it by a 3-1 margin.
"It was a wonderful compassionate statement by the voters," said Oates, who is leaving Ann Arbor soon for another chief's job in Aurora, Colo. "But as a practical matter there is no such thing as a medical marijuana product recognized by the FDA and available via prescription ... for treatment of an ill person. As a practical matter such a law has no effect."
Police policies and procedures regarding marijuana remain unchanged in Ann Arbor.
In a city of 114,000, Ann Arbor police prosecute less than 10 people a year for simple marijuana possession, Oates said. Typically, those are cases where authorities have pursued a suspect for marijuana sales but are unable to prove the intent to deliver the drug.
"The only time we bring a case is for sale" of marijuana, Oates said.
No matter what ordinances an individual community passes, marijuana is still illegal under federal and state law. And those laws supersede municipal ordinances, authorities say.
In Ferndale, resident and University of Michigan student Donal O'Leary III is head of the Ferndale Coalition for Compassionate Care that got the pot issue on the ballot with a petition drive.
O'Leary indicated the ordinance would send a message that residents don't want police using tax funds to pursue those who use marijuana to treat an illness.
If Proposal D passes today, an officer who works to prosecute a patient using marijuana "would be going against the will of Ferndale residents who say that we don't want our neighbors prosecuted just for using the medicine they and their doctors agree is right for them," O'Leary said.
Ferndale Capt. Timothy Collins, a 27-year veteran of the department said that to his knowledge no one has ever been arrested in Ferndale and used a medical marijuana defense.
Like the Oakland County prosecutor's office, Ferndale police oppose Proposal D.
"We would charge under the state law rather than city ordinance in cases where there is a medical marijuana defense," Collins said, adding that someone may eventually make a court decide whether such ordinances are even legal.
"My fear is that unscrupulous people will use this kind of ordinance as an out," Collins said.
Run-of-the-mill marijuana possession is punishable as a 93-day misdemeanor or up to a year in jail under state law. Possession with intent to sell is a 5- to 15-year felony depending on the amount of pot a suspect is charged with having.
If medical marijuana proponents want to change the law they need to do so at the state and federal level, opponents say.
Ten states, mostly in the western U.S., have laws that allow medical pot. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that those state laws don't preclude federal law officers from charging marijuana users and dealers operating under state medical marijuana laws.
O'Leary said he and other proponents are focusing on community ordinances for medical marijuana to gauge support for policy reform.
A statewide effort would require greater resources and effort, he said.
"If this proves to be an issue people are really passionate about I suppose it is possible we would pursue it on a greater level," O'Leary said.
Meanwhile, community police faced with such ordinances say they are virtually meaningless in legalizing marijuana use, even for sick people.
Source: Daily Tribune, The (Royal Oak, MI)
Copyright: 2005 The Daily Tribune
Contact: editor@dailytribune.com
Website: Daily Tribune
