Michigan: State Rep Announces Bill To Legalize Marijuana At Hash Bash

[Jacob Redmond]

Dozens of activists -- including comedian Tommy Chong, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and State Representative Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) -- spoke out about the various merits of marijuana at the 44th Annual Hash Bash in Ann Arbor Saturday.

Jim Powers told the large, smoky crowd gathered at the University of Michigan's Diag how cannabis oil has helped heal his 6-year-old son, Ryan, who was an autoimmune disease.

But Powers is not happy about the hazy implementation of the medical marijuana law.

"The state of Michigan has failed my family," he added.

The crowd heard other personal stories from folks like 18-year-old Alyssa Erwin, who says cannabis oil has rid her body of cancer not once, but twice.

She was diagnosed with brain cancer at 14. She did chemo, but it made her sick, she said. Then she started taking cannabis oil.

"(It) saved my life," she said. "I told my parents: no more chemo."

Doctors at the University of Michigan Health System eventually pronounced her cancer free.

But then it came back last July worse than before. Erwin got cannabis oil back in her system and now doctors say she's 75 percent cancer-free.

"By law, I'm taking a medicine that is saving my life but is still illegal," she said. "We need these laws to change."

Veteran Dakota Serna said marijuana has helped him recover from the horrors of war.

"I watched some good people die, I saw some bad people die," he said, adding that smoking marijuana has helped bring him back from some dark mental places.

In addition to the personal stories of people helped by pot, politicians and members of various pro-marijuana organizations addressed the crowd.

Irwin said he is drafting a bill to introduce into the state legislature that would legalize marijuana in Michigan much like it has in other states.

"It's going to be Colorado improved in the Great Lakes state," he said.

Bernero said he is in favor of seeing the laws changed.

"It is a shame that in the year 2015 pot is still politically polarizing," he said. "A lot of people are still afraid to embrace legalization. I'm proud to say my thinking has evolved."

Chong was clearly the crowd favorite. He joked he's been to hash bashes throughout the years all over the country - even if he doesn't remember being at some of them.

"I really have one message for the government of the United States: decriminalize it," he said. "Today is a celebration of the greatest plant known to me. I'm going to smoke one right now."

News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: State rep announces bill to legalize marijuana at Hash Bash | MLive.com
Author: John Counts
Contact: johncounts@mlive.com
Photo Credit: Nicole Hester
Website: Michigan Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - MLive.com

 

[erockp]

Forget total legalization in Michigan for a moment, let's talk about marijuana and mandatory workplace drug testing first. My comment is in response to problems with using marijuana medically, while employers, albeit oxymoronically, can still terminate a person's employment for legally and responsibly medicating OUTSIDE of the workplace and OUTSIDE of working hours; this as a result of using antiquated intoxication detection techniques and also as a result of antiquated Federal US guidelines determining Marijuana scheduling, possesion penalties, use, and intoxication. I am a LEGAL Medical Marijuana patient with a recommendation from a certified doctor in my state. We, the people of this state, have legalized this law via POPULAR VOTE and subsequently its litigation. I have been diagnosed with Meneire's Disease, Osteo Arthritis, and IBS, all of whose symptoms can be tolerated (if not completely alleviated) with a SINGLE dose of Cannabis each evening- one half an MJ cigarette per evening does the trick for me, and the theraputic results can last through the entire next day, while I am certainly not intoxicated or even impaired by the time I awaken. I have been using cannabis since 1977 almost daily, save for a six year enlistment in the US Air Force, where random testing was done and I was forced to abstain. I enlisted in the military for the same reason my father did (who was, ironically, a Special Narcotics Agent for the California Department of Justice): for the love of my country and the notion that I could help maintain FREEDOM in it. I have been a LEGAL, card-carrying Medical Marijuana patient in the state of Michigan since its inception here without a worry and nearly symptom free of all of my conditions for several years now. In 2015, after 27 years of continuous employment with a spotless employee AND attendance record, my employer has been taken over by a very large national corporation in which random drug testing is mandatory on a bi-yearly basis. Employees cannot be certain exactly when such testing will be accomplished; consequently we must all abstain or risk our future employment. This affects MANY people who work there. Several employees with very specific skill sets have since been fired or forced to quit, this to the detriment of the company, while NONE have EVER been accused of being intoxicated on the job. After 27 years at my job, I am only 53 and will not be able to retire for another 14 years. I have been forced to quit Cannabis use or risk my family's health benefits, my pension, and future security. All medications I have taken in the past for my diagnoses have resulted in suffering from more (and worse) side effects than the original problems; i.e., 16 kidney stones over a period of a few years when I decided to stop using MJ and go with prescription meds, continued nausea and digestive discomfort (to include daily diarrhea several times per day), and further deterioration of my skeletal system and the connective tissue in my hips. I now use NO medications at all. All symptoms from my conditions have returned after 3 months of abstinence, and now I just have to deal with them while working 55-60 hours per week at a job consisting of 10 hours per day of manual labor in a factory.
I cannot argue the fact that an employer needs to maintain job safety. I am well aware that their respective insurance liability providers may put extra pressure on them to test for workplace intoxication. Remember, I said INTOXICATION. But here are the facts: the corporate detection of marijuana in one's system relies on detecting marijuana METABOLITES, which can be present a month or even two after its last use- NOT actual marijuana intoxication. Let me re-emphasize that- marijuana METABOLITES clearly do not justify a basis for intoxication. Let me ask ANYONE this: have you EVER still been high a month after smoking a joint??? A week??? This is what these tests imply. Conversely, in a common employer urinalysis, the cutoff for intoxication based on THC metabolites is only 50 nanograms. For heroin and other opioids such as Vicodin, Dilaudid, etc. (without the necessity of providing a prescription), the cutoff is 5,000 nanograms, for cocaine 300 nanograms, and for methamphetamines, 150 nanograms. And let's remember that the metabolites of the other aforementioned NARCOTICS are generally not even detected in urine after 48 hours, as they are not bound to fat cells in the body as THC Metabolites are. And in most experts and physician's eyes, these other drugs are much more dangerous to on-the-job performance and are more habit-forming than marijuana. Now, with these facts in mind, is there ANYONE in the scientific community who has (or can) develop an accurate test for Marijuana INTOXICATION??? Can we put something like this to good use IMMEDIATELY???
I will tell you this; along with an employee urinalysis for drug detection, all employees at my company are also subjected to a breathalyzer test for alcohol. I know for a FACT that there are SEVERAL alcoholics at my place of employment who were quite intoxicated the night before (or even the morning OF) the test, and still passed the company's intoxication criteria. Some of them even operate forklifts and other heavy equipment. Certainly, a qualified scientist with his heart in the right place can be found to assist people in my predicament, right?
Also be advised, employers, that most people who use medical Marijuana are not completely impaired and useless to society; rather we are reliable, well educated, industrious, motivated people who choose to treat their aliments in the gentle way WE have chosen, NOT the way the US Government currently says we HAVE to. We are your sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, peers and co-workers. Some of us may have even saved your life at some point, even though you do not agree with our life choices. We are HERE. We are NOT going away. Our numbers WILL increase. We WILL get stronger. GET USED TO IT AND CHANGE OUR ANTIQUATED LAWS NOW!!!!! EVERYONE needs to help- PLEASE!!! Lives are at stake.
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