Royal Oak Official: Time For Michigan To Regulate Medical Marijuana Like Other Rx's

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With Royal Oak's medical marijuana moratorium set to expire next month, City Commissioner Charles Semchena is urging legislators to modify state law by regulating pot like other prescription drugs.

Semchena, a former drug prosecutor who has led the fight for stricter marijuana regulation in Royal Oak, is expected tonight to urge his colleagues to join a grassroots campaign calling for action in Lansing.

Sept. 11, Daily Tribune: "There are no fewer than six bills languishing in committee that could make the manufacturing and distribution of medical marijuana similar to other prescription drugs," Semchena said. "I want to kick-start the effort to address this."

The bills pending in Lansing would require the state health department to license growing facilities, allow only 10 facilities to be licensed per year, limit dispensing to licensed pharmacists, prohibit convicted felons from being caregivers, and ban medical marijuana clubs or bars.

The City Commission last month denied a moratorium exemption request for a local businessmen who wanted to lease his vacant warehouse as the state's largest grow facility, and recent raids in Oakland County have provided Semchena ammunition in his fight to permanently ban marijuana-related businesses in Royal Oak.

"The most frequent comment I hear from constituents is they thought (they were approving medical marijuana use) with prescriptions, written by doctors, and a pharmacy used to distribute marijuana," Semchena told the Eccentric last month after he invited a Drug Enforcement Administration agent to speak about crime rates near dispensaries in California. "(The law is) something much different than what was anticipated. Medical marijuana has therapeutic use. It's the methodology that creates the higher crime rates."

Elsewhere in Oakland County, medical marijuana advocates are expected gather in Pontiac to protest last month's arrests of several patients in a series of raids on area dispensaries. "The idea that it's acceptable for law enforcement to beat down doors, hold weapons at patients' heads, discuss killing family pets in front of children -- all that has to stop," Southfield attorney Michael Komorn told the Detroit Free Press.

Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, who ordered the raids, also has urged state legislators to clarify the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act of 2008, which does not specifically address dispensaries.


NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Michigan Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - MLive.com
Author: Jonathan Oosting
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Website:Royal Oak official: Time for Michigan to regulate medical marijuana like other prescription drugs | MLive.com
 
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