Becoming a Medical Marijuana Patient in Michigan

David Bowman

New Member
Summary
In Michigan, a patient with a debilitating disease whose doctor recommends marijuana may use medical marijuana with the proper state-issued ID. A patient may elect to have a primary caregiver assist them in growing and using marijuana.

What's Legal
As a patient, you may have up to 2.5 ounces of usable marijuana. If you do not have a primary caregiver who will cultivate marijuana for you, you may keep up to 12 plants in an enclosed, locked facility. Primary caregivers may have up to 2.5 ounces and 12 plants for each patient they care for. You may possess pipes, vaporizers, and growing equipment.

Eligible Conditions
  • cancer
  • glaucoma
  • HIV/AIDS
  • hepatitis C
  • amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease)
  • Crohn's disease
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • nail patella (NPS or Turner-Kiser syndrome)
  • cachexia or wasting syndrome
  • severe and chronic pain
  • severe nausea
  • seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy
  • severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis.
  • any other medical condition approved later on by rulemaking
    • post traumatic stress syndrome as added via rulemaking on March 14, 2014
Application Process
After your licensed doctor recommends medical marijuana, you must complete an application and send it to the Michigan Department of Community Health. You must pay an application fee of $100, unless you are currently enrolled in Medicaid or receiving SSI or SSD, then you must pay $25. Application and instructions can be found here for adults, and here for minors.

Doctor
Any Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) licensed in Michigan can recommend a patient for the Michigan marijuana program. Your doctor must sign a written statement saying that in your doctor's professional opinion you are likely to receive therapeutic benefit from the medical use of marijuana to treat or alleviate your debilitating medical condition or symptoms associated with the condition This written recommendation must be submitted to the Michigan Department of Community Health with your application and fee.

Access/Caregivers
Primary caregivers may cultivate marijuana for qualifying patients and patients may grow medicine for themselves. A person can be a caregiver for up to five patients. Caregivers can also receive compensation for the costs of their services. Make sure you do not cultivate more than the law allows.

Consumption
Do not medicate on school grounds, in a school bus, or while driving or operating heavy machinery.

Confidentiality
The state maintains a confidential list of the people who have been issued ID cards. Individual names and other identifying information on the list are confidential.

Housing
Nothing in Michigan's medical marijuana law specifically addresses whether or not you can be evicted due to your status as a medical marijuana patient, even if you have only the amount of medical marijuana allowed by law. Also, the Act does not address whether or not a person can be a medical marijuana patient and live in subsidized housing. If you have questions about these important issues, Americans for Safe Access recommends you talk to an attorney to learn about your rights and protections.

Employment
The law prohibits disciplinary action by a business or occupational or professional licensing board based solely on a person's status as a medical marijuana patient. The law does not require an employer to accommodate your use of marijuana in the workplace.

Child Custody
A patient shall not be denied custody or visitation of a minor for using medical marijuana, unless the patient's behavior is such that it creates an unreasonable danger to the minor.

Visiting Qualified Patients
Visiting qualifying patients, or patients from other states with an equivalent state-issued marijuana ID card, are protected by Michigan's medical marijuana laws.

Source: ASA: Becoming a Patient in Michigan
 
I like what you have laid out and like anything interesting I have more questions.
What qualifies a primary caregiver ? Do you need to be licensed (in Michigan)? What are the costs? Can a primary caregiver also be patient?
  • thanks
 
Your claims of protection from employer disciplinary actions and termination of employment are not necessarily true! This needs to be CLARIFIED in our MMJ law. 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.
© 2015 Microsoft Terms Privacy & cookies Developers English (United States)
 
Your claims of protection from employer disciplinary actions and termination of employment are not necessarily true! This needs to be CLARIFIED in our MMJ law. 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.
© 2015 Microsoft Terms Privacy & cookies Developers English (United States)

I never made a claim for employer protection & for the most of your letter it does not apply to my questions. Still you do have a lot of important information which I am grateful to see. I agree w/ what you said that the laws have to be clarified. Because they are now in effect there is amply information out there such as yours that can be used to refine the laws.
One point I would make about your statement is that it would be much easier to read if you broke it down to categories like an outline. I.e. ' we need clarification to medical marijuana (MMJ) laws. I have been diagnosed w/ various Diseases all of which symptomatically can be treated by the use of Cannabis. I have been forced to quit Cannabis use or risk my family's health benefits, my pension, and future security. This is a contradiction in the current MMJ laws which legalize the medical use which could be remedied by updating what is known and clarifying. 1) MMJ when used as prescribed by doctors should not concern the work place or employer' etc.....
Good luck and I hope it works out for you and all of us.
 
I like what you have laid out and like anything interesting I have more questions.
What qualifies a primary caregiver ? Do you need to be licensed (in Michigan)? What are the costs? Can a primary caregiver also be patient?
  • thanks
To be a caregiver in Michigan you have to be 18 and you can't be a fellon. You do have to be a licenced michigan citizen. It's like 15 bucks per patient. And it's 150 to renew as a patient not including doctor price which for me is 100 to my chiropractor for the recomendation. I am a patient and a caregiver for 4. The max you can have is 72 plants so you can either have 6 patients if you are not a patient and 5 if you are a patient. Hope this answers your questions.
 
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