Jacob Bell
New Member
Stop the wild swings of the legal pendulum over medical marijuana in Michigan and get serious about enabling the will of the voters who approved use of the drug for patients who need it.
That goes for everybody involved in the fight over what the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act of 2008 means.
Voters approved the petition referendum on the face of it: Patients with debilitating conditions that marijuana may relieve should be allowed to grow, possess and ingest it, or they can get it from a caregiver.
Both caregivers and patients must be certified with the state.
That's the gist of the law, and that simplicity is also what's wrong with it.
It needs work to clear up some questions.
But it doesn't need the hammering that it's about to get when the state Legislature reconvenes after its summer break.
Late last month, the Michigan Court of Appeals enraged medical marijuana advocates when it ruled that the law has no provision for the dispensaries that popped up like seedlings across the state to supply patients with marijuana.
The judges were dead on the mark; nowhere in the law is retail sale or third-party trade of marijuana mentioned, even if only to state certified patients. The ruling pulls the medical marijuana pendulum back from one extreme.
But some lawmakers want it to swing all the way over in the opposite direction.
Bills introduced in the House would strictly define the doctor-patient relationship in issuing prescriptions for state marijuana certificates, ban physician and caregivers from advertising, and strip legal protections from certificate holders who go outside the boundaries of the law.
That's all an overreaction, and much of it probably wouldn't stand up in court. No law now defines doctor-patient relationships; advertising is protected free speech under the First Amendment; lawbreakers already are on thin ice when they venture from the safe shores of clearly defined laws.
But between the extremes in this debate are the patients. They're in a marijuana-growing Catch-22. It's legal for each patient to grow up to 12 plants and possess the dried leaves, and each caregiver can grow a maximum of 60 plants for a total of five patients for which they are registered. But the law doesn't in any way legitimize the procurement of the seeds they need, which are illegal for anyone but certified caregivers and patients.
So where are medical marijuana patients and their caregivers supposed to get the seeds, if not through illegal channels?
That's a flaw in the law that must be addressed.
Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Midland Republican, is at the center of another medical marijuana sideshow, the recall petitions sought against him for advocating laws to reign in what he calls a "pot free-for-all" in Michigan. The marijuana dispensaries are proof the medical marijuana law is widely flouted, he has said.
A recall is unwarranted against the attorney general for opinions on the legality of activity that's begging for legal definition.
The law is vague – intentionally vague, Schuette asserts.
Entrepreneurs stepped in to fill that legal vacuum.
Was that wrong?
An informal, unscientific poll that The Saginaw News hosted online late last month at one point had 90 percent of the people responding say they opposed efforts to close dispensaries.
That doesn't make them legal, but it might indicate the need for a more rigorous determination of what the people of Michigan want in a medical marijuana law that spells out way too little.
As it stands, the medical marijuana law is hypocrisy defined. It legalizes the medical use of the drug, while leaving almost every other activity involved in its procurement illegal or unsaid.
Lawmakers' – and lawmen's – first and only task should be to enable the will of 63 percent of voters who approved the medical marijuana law. Make it possible for people who may benefit from its medical use to have safe, legal access to it.
Right now, it's not at all clear that they do.
Blow away that fog of confusion, and spare us the polemics from either political extreme.
News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: mlive.com
Author: Editorial Board, Saginaw News
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Michigan Live LLC.
Website: Torn From the Front Page: Stop tinkering with medical marijuana and fix the flaws in the law
That goes for everybody involved in the fight over what the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act of 2008 means.
Voters approved the petition referendum on the face of it: Patients with debilitating conditions that marijuana may relieve should be allowed to grow, possess and ingest it, or they can get it from a caregiver.
Both caregivers and patients must be certified with the state.
That's the gist of the law, and that simplicity is also what's wrong with it.
It needs work to clear up some questions.
But it doesn't need the hammering that it's about to get when the state Legislature reconvenes after its summer break.
Late last month, the Michigan Court of Appeals enraged medical marijuana advocates when it ruled that the law has no provision for the dispensaries that popped up like seedlings across the state to supply patients with marijuana.
The judges were dead on the mark; nowhere in the law is retail sale or third-party trade of marijuana mentioned, even if only to state certified patients. The ruling pulls the medical marijuana pendulum back from one extreme.
But some lawmakers want it to swing all the way over in the opposite direction.
Bills introduced in the House would strictly define the doctor-patient relationship in issuing prescriptions for state marijuana certificates, ban physician and caregivers from advertising, and strip legal protections from certificate holders who go outside the boundaries of the law.
That's all an overreaction, and much of it probably wouldn't stand up in court. No law now defines doctor-patient relationships; advertising is protected free speech under the First Amendment; lawbreakers already are on thin ice when they venture from the safe shores of clearly defined laws.
But between the extremes in this debate are the patients. They're in a marijuana-growing Catch-22. It's legal for each patient to grow up to 12 plants and possess the dried leaves, and each caregiver can grow a maximum of 60 plants for a total of five patients for which they are registered. But the law doesn't in any way legitimize the procurement of the seeds they need, which are illegal for anyone but certified caregivers and patients.
So where are medical marijuana patients and their caregivers supposed to get the seeds, if not through illegal channels?
That's a flaw in the law that must be addressed.
Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Midland Republican, is at the center of another medical marijuana sideshow, the recall petitions sought against him for advocating laws to reign in what he calls a "pot free-for-all" in Michigan. The marijuana dispensaries are proof the medical marijuana law is widely flouted, he has said.
A recall is unwarranted against the attorney general for opinions on the legality of activity that's begging for legal definition.
The law is vague – intentionally vague, Schuette asserts.
Entrepreneurs stepped in to fill that legal vacuum.
Was that wrong?
An informal, unscientific poll that The Saginaw News hosted online late last month at one point had 90 percent of the people responding say they opposed efforts to close dispensaries.
That doesn't make them legal, but it might indicate the need for a more rigorous determination of what the people of Michigan want in a medical marijuana law that spells out way too little.
As it stands, the medical marijuana law is hypocrisy defined. It legalizes the medical use of the drug, while leaving almost every other activity involved in its procurement illegal or unsaid.
Lawmakers' – and lawmen's – first and only task should be to enable the will of 63 percent of voters who approved the medical marijuana law. Make it possible for people who may benefit from its medical use to have safe, legal access to it.
Right now, it's not at all clear that they do.
Blow away that fog of confusion, and spare us the polemics from either political extreme.
News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: mlive.com
Author: Editorial Board, Saginaw News
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Michigan Live LLC.
Website: Torn From the Front Page: Stop tinkering with medical marijuana and fix the flaws in the law
