Medical Marijuana Now Legal In Michigan, But Rules Unclear

DETROIT — Medical marijuana became legal in Michigan on Thursday, but smoking a joint could still get patients arrested because the regulations needed to protect them won't be ready for months.

The law approved by voters in November allows patients with cancer, HIV, AIDS, glaucoma and other diseases to use marijuana to relieve their symptoms on a doctor's recommendation.

Qualifying patients can register with the state and receive ID cards allowing them to legally acquire, possess, grow, transport and use a limited amount _ no more than 2.5 ounces and 12 plants _ of marijuana. They also can designate a primary caregiver to receive similar protection.

But those cards won't be issued until the Department of Community Health introduces guidelines addressing how applications will be handled, what fees will be charged and other issues. The rules must be finalized by April 4.

Until then, anyone possessing marijuana _ even patients who could later qualify for the program _ can be arrested and prosecuted, though the law allows patients to use a medical-justification defense at trial.

"We have this void where this takes effect now, but there are no rules, regulations or guidance for the people who want to use it or the people who enforce the laws," said Jim Valentine, chief of police in Lowell and first vice president of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police.

Officers in Lowell will arrest marijuana users even if they claim to be patients awaiting cards, Valentine said. He said he'll let the prosecutor decide whether to pursue charges.

A medical-marijuana program nearly identical to Michigan's was implemented without major incident in Rhode Island in 2006, said Charles Alexandre, who oversees the program as chief of health professions regulation in Rhode Island's Department of Health. That state also had a period where the law went into effect before the regulations were in place, and patients simply had to wait until the rules were in order.

"It's been very quiet," Alexandre said.

Michigan is the 13th state to allow medicinal use of marijuana, though the state's law doesn't address how patients can obtain it. It's illegal to sell marijuana, even to registered patients. That's also the case in several other states.

Police in Michigan say they want guidance on the issue, and some experts said the Legislature may have to intervene if that or any other aspect of the program becomes a problem.

Comments

[JoeHurley]

Let me help out.

Marijuana is still illegal in Michigan.

Even after they work out the kinks in the state system, marijuana will still be illegal in Michigan. States can not supersede federal law. Just ask all the "legal" growers in California who get busted every year by the DEA.

[abouttime]

being freeslave to the fears whose blind adherence to
state right aor US Constitutional rights backing these "legal" growers (and patients) because

[onalimb]

Humm... wonder how much money and how many lives we can save if we eliminate the DEA?

[pat8942]

The Government is too busy figuring out ways to tax bovine flatulence, putting the big 3 out of business and saving greedy bankers to take time out to do something sensible.

[zizyphus]

Good news! As people learn more of the truth about the many positive attributes of the cannabis plant, more states will follow suit.

It is not just that pot is the most benign of all recreational substances that makes it a natural for decriminalization, it is turning out to be a potential source of anti-cancer medicine as well. Recent studies show that THC and cannabinoids kill several types of cancer cells. Marijuana also protects the nervous system from assaults with nerve gas, should that occasion arise.

A man in Nova Scotia uses the whole plant to make an oil used as a topical ointment, or internally, to treat many diseases. The law tried to say he was trafficking, but he had given away every tube of oiintment for free, to help people.

I think people the world over should be angry that we have been lied to about this plant, which provides us with medicine, food, and fiber, and has been a boon to mankind for millennia.

It is one of the greatest crimes against humanity that these outmoded pot laws are destroying the lives of millions of Americans, essentially to line the pockets of the various groups that profit from the status quo, which is the law enforcement agencies and the organized drug cartels.

[NOLIESPLEASE]

I agree my friend. I live in Canada where as you know, we take pot smoking very lightly here. In a book called BUD INC. it is said Canada has a 17billion ( yes billion ) dollar pot industry. The government will never stop the business of pot. It supports to many people and the governmet does not have to payout unemployment, or other safty nets programs to assist people is lower incomes. There is no crime over pot because anyone can grow it for there own personal use.

In the US, the government has made an indurstry of convicting pot dealers and or smokers to keep the prisons ( public owned and traded on the stock market) in business. Currently just over half of inmates in prisions are for drugs convictions. WHAT A WAIST OF MONEY. If they fined each person ( for coke, herion, meth) based upon there assets or income...you would actually make money instead of spending it for a lost cause.

I don't want to hear the execuse "oh everyone will be stoned all the time" . Really....is eveyone walking around drunk ???? all the time. Will one loose his job if they show up to work drunk???

So what would make it different??? When the lies stop, then maybe we grow up and takle this proplem like adults.

[Stilts9]

The hippies were right about everything - Vietnam, Civil RIghts, Gender Equality, Environment, and yes, Legalize Cannabis

[abouttime]

Seriously; The Federal Government has superceeded States, like California, in enforcing Federal laws which violate patients right to cannabis in thiose states. Oregons assisited suicide law was challenged by the Federal Government and an appelete court ruled. The Feds will not challenge California's Proposition 215, passed by the voters in 1996. Why not? Because they will loose. So instead of taking care of the "conflict" between the two Republics, the Feds have sporadically enforced (arrested patients and shut down dispensaries) "drugaws' which defy common sense and compassion. These "drug laws are immoral, draconian and inhumane . These actions violate civil remedies and place tremendous burdens on individuals and families arrested and convicted for protecting their health and lives in using cannabis.
Reality is that good people suffer needlessly and severely because our system has failed tp be civil, but rather has been belligerant in ignoring and making worse simple conflicts.
ps; We were right then, and we are right now!

[Independent voter]

Thank you.

[fiberoptimist]

The hippies were, indeed, right about everything (well, ok, may be the free sex thing didn't work out so well in the long run). But, I've been saying that for years. Vegetarianism, social justice, community-based economics, natural child-birth, organic farming, solar power, distrust of the establishment, changing the status-quo, hemp, medical cannabis, shunning of Wall Street greed, anti-war, pro-choice, political activism, etc, etc, etc.

Reagan hated hippies, and his so-called revolution was largely about smashing the rise of the left, destroying the unions, and the middle-class. Now we see the fruits of these so-called conservative policies. The earth's climate is destabilizing, the economy is in ruins, terrorism is rampant, the middle-class is going down the tubes, and we suffer from all kinds of diseases that didn't exist 20 years ago.

I hope Obama has the wisdom to end the war on drugs and put that money into something useful. The world should thank the hippies for the ch-ch-changes they initiated.

[surlybird]

well there is that personal hygiene thing that they were not so right about....they smelled bad.

[chasmader]

Smoking pot is less hard on your body than drinking booze.

[08politicaljunkie]

or smoking cigarettes

[japobere]

Here's an idea:

1) Legalize it.
2) Save money in incarceration fees.
3) Generate revenue by taxing it.
4) ????
5) Profit!

[Raspletziak]

Bingo.

[NOLIESPLEASE]

Maybe then we can get out of this depression. Yes it's a depression. It took a year for the gov to admit it was a recession. Well guess what??? it's now a depression.

[strick9]

The DEA and ICE are terrorist organization created by our government to control the population. The 1937 marijuana law was passed during a congressional recess by special interest trying to control the Mexican immigrants in the depression. The other drug laws were also passed to control other minorities, opium to control the Chinese, cocaine the blacks, and LSD added to control the hippies. Use does not equal abuse. Instead of laws to control the abuses of these drugs the truth about the effects should be made available to the public.

[RightWingMarine]

attempts to legislate morality have never worked. While I have no interest in using drugs myself I believe that every person should own their own body. If an adult decides to use or abuse a substance that should be their right. Likewise if their use leads to adverse health conditions and addictions that should also be their problem, society didn't hook them on drugs and society should not be on the hook to treat them now.

I believe every major city should have a Little Amersterdam that is heavily patrolled by police and private security paid for by the shops that are established in the area and where marijuana use is permitted and prostitution is licensed. Outside of this area these activites could be prohibited and inside it could be legal, burden with endless requirements (because that's what politicians do) and safe(ish).

[Moshe]

Marijuana prohibition has worked about as well as alcohol prohibition, and continuing this folly is insanity.

In no small part due to the phoney "war on drugs" the U.S. now has the largest prison population in the world, now exceeding 1% of the total population.

Incarceration is incredibly expensive, so having more than one out of every 100 people in prison is an enormous financial drain on us all, not to mention the long term devastating on the lives of young people that simply smoked some marijuana for fun and then found themselves in jail and with a criminal record that destroyed their future.

It is necessary to isolate violent criminals, but people that smoke marijuana in the privacy of their own homes are no threat to anyone (unless you try to grab the last brownie).

Now that the financial sh-t has really hit the fan, it's time to give up this absurd farce. The police love the confiscation money and drug war grants, but the reality is that they can't even keep hard drugs out of prisons which are totally under their supervions 24/7. Further, truth be known, there is no shortage of police and polititians that smoked marijuana themselves but now make a living destroying the lives of others for doing what they themselves did.

Tax marijuana, make it a safe article of commerce like alcohol, and for f%&$ing sakes stop prosecuting cancer patients and people who try to help them with medical marijuana.

[faretheewell]

There is an obvious flaw to your argument. You are trying to introduce logic into the debate. You need to try an anti-intellectual appeal to the emotion. That's the ticket for success in our society.

[NOLIESPLEASE]

The only reason our government (Canada)has not legalized the possession of pot is becuase your government (United States) has threatened us ( Canada ) by sealing it's US borders along Canada which in turn killing our exports and your imports.

We will not destroy our young with a criminal record for smoking pot. The only way to change things in the US is for the US to go broke. And by the way things are looking, I wouldn't dubt if the laws were changed by the end of 2012.

Wake up and smell the coffee my friends....put pressure on your elected officials to stop this insanity of paying to keep pot smokers in jail.

I bet if you did the numbers, you could pay for health care with the money saved.

DRUGS ARE A MEDICAL PROBLEM ,NOT A CRIMINAL PROBLEM PERIOD

[Pippilangstrumpf]

Fantastic post (as usual) Moshe.

And faretheewell make sense too...it seems that when you're talking about law and politics, if it makes sense, the idea will never see the light of day.

[CaptD]

e current President of Mexico has proposed just this idea and I hope that Mexico will adopt it ASAP; then perhaps the USA's lawmakers will be "financially forced" to see the POSITIVE changes that legalized drugs makes.

BTW: The BUSH War on Drugs has only resulted in helping fund the drug cartels, hiring ever more police, building ever more prisons and then filling up (at a cost of at least $45,000+ per year per convict!) with "small fry"...

If Mexico did like many other Countries and legalized very small amount of pot/drugs sold by the "State" with an Rx, then the Cartels would be out of business and probably the use of crack and more dangerous drugs by their population would be drastically reduce....

[shel3364]

If any state deserves to be numbed to reality, its Michigan. Let 'em have this.

[zizyphus]

Well, pot doesn't "numb you to reality" it enhances it. If your reality sucks, it emphasizes that as well, leading to the desire to effect change. It is alcohol that is the drug that numbs.

[StephenDedalus82]

How much longer can the federal government continue with this ridiculous charade that cannabis is somehow worse than alcohol or tobacco or prescription drugs?

[zenwhenicanbe2]

The drug war has been a complete waste of time, money, human life and civil liberties. All the while people with legitimate uses, such as stomach cancer patients allowed to regain an appetite by smoking, are denied. I don't smoke but I say legalize it and stop raiding clinics....

[BabsfromKansas]

if the Big 3 go under, everyone in MI will be using it!

[atlantishp]

An annual use tax is the way to go. It is too easy to produce to control the distribution thereof. Make the fine for use w/o paying the annual fee about 100 times the use fee. I suggest a use fee of around $100/yr.

[Dystopic]

Tax each plant at say $100 to $200 per. With good growing techniques, and a superior plant genetics, each plant could produce at least 30g, with some as much as 240g per plant.

[mary jane]

Legalize. Regulate. Educate.

this is a waste of your tax dollars. write your congress people today. even if the state laws protect patients, the feds are wasting billions a year raiding medical marijuana patients! end prohibition!

[CaptD]

This is a classic example of the voters making a decision and the "Government" not allowing the laws to change "because they can"! Folks with a real need are suffering every day and the Gov't.. is dragging it's feet; why because someone like the Governor has not told the Police to "lay off" folks until the paperwork catches up with the "new" law. If they were in pain every day this would be done yesterday!