Pubdate: Sun, 08 Jan 2012
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2012 Detroit Free Press
Contact: http://www.freep.com/article/99999999/opinion04/50926009
Website: http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

MEDICAL MARIJUANA SUPPORTERS PUSH TO LEGALIZE DRUG AS ACCESS TIGHTENS

Narrowing access to medical marijuana is leading Michigan's 
registered patients, supporters and lawyers to a new strategy: a 
campaign to gain limited legalization of marijuana in Michigan for all uses.

Access to the drug has tightened as doctors increasingly refuse to 
sign the state forms to approve the drug, patients said. In addition, 
dozens of communities -- including Birmingham and Livonia -- are 
enforcing total bans on the drug, and dispensaries that once openly 
sold it have been raided and shut down by police.

Detroit attorney Matt Abel, a state-registered user, is a chief 
organizer of the petition campaign that is to start Wednesday -- the 
first day when signatures can be gathered within the 180-day period 
allowed before the July 9 filing deadline, Abel said. The goal is to 
be on the statewide November ballot with a proposal allowing 
Michiganders 21 and older to possess small amounts of marijuana, he said.

"It would be for religious, medical and personal use, industrial use 
and agricultural use -- we're putting all that right in the wording," 
said Abel, 53, of Detroit.

In 2008, Michigan voters passed the state act to allow medical 
marijuana use with 63% yes votes. Law enforcement authorities, 
including Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and Oakland County 
Prosecutor Jessica Cooper, said the state's medical marijuana act has 
been widely abused and used as cover for drug dealers. If a ballot 
proposal passes for limited legalization of marijuana, prosecutors 
and police said the drug would still be illegal in Michigan under federal laws.

Still, proponents of the ballot proposal said state and local courts 
could not prosecute small-time marijuana users if their proposal 
passes. The state act allowing medical marijuana "doesn't legalize 
marijuana, it creates an exception to illegality -- but a 
constitutional amendment would be a stronger protection for the use 
of marijuana, medical or otherwise," attorney and Royal Oak City 
Commissioner Jim Rasor said.

The campaign for legalization "is a direct result of ... Schuette and 
his obsession with destroying the medical marijuana act," said 
marijuana activist Tim Beck, owner of a Detroit-based health care 
benefits firm.

"People are getting desperate and saying, 'We have to push ahead and 
get public opinion on our side,' " said Beck, 60, of Detroit, who in 
2006 helped draft Michigan's medical marijuana act.

Access to medical marijuana has been squeezed as the number of 
doctors who approve the drug dwindle, patients said.

In a Nov. 29 letter to patients, infectious disease specialist Dr. 
Charles Craig at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ypsilanti wrote:

"The Michigan Attorney General has declared the Michigan Medical 
Marijuana Act to be illegal (and) instructed law enforcement 
officials in Michigan to arrest anyone possessing marijuana, even if 
they have a card.

"If I prescribed medical marijuana for you ... I might be construed 
as being complicit in encouraging criminal behavior for prescribing 
what the AG has declared to be an illegal substance."

Craig declined to be interviewed. One of his patients -- Steven 
Greene, 46, of Lyon Township -- said he must find another doctor 
before his state registry card expires May 1.

"I've been seeing Dr. Craig for 10 years, and he's been signing my 
certificate (for medical marijuana approval) for three years now" for 
a chronic infectious condition, Greene said.

The concerns of Michigan doctors were triggered in June, when 
Schuette issued an opinion in which he said:

"The possession of marijuana remains illegal under federal law, even 
if it is possessed for medicinal purposes in accordance with the 
state law." Schuette declined repeated requests in the last two 
months for interviews on marijuana.

Other Michigan doctors also are retreating from signing medical 
marijuana forms, leading to more demand for approvals by doctors 
working in offices that do nothing but approve medical marijuana 
users, said Michael Komorn, a Southfield lawyer who handles medical 
marijuana cases.

"We're hearing this from a number of patients, but their doctors 
don't want to talk about it," Komorn said.

Access to the drug further narrowed in December, when an Oakland 
County circuit judge ruled against a lawsuit by a Birmingham couple.

The couple -- she has multiple sclerosis, he has other ailments -- 
hoped to overturn bans on medical marijuana in Birmingham, Bloomfield 
Hills and Livonia. More than 60 communities, counties and other 
government entities in Michigan have passed zoning ordinances that 
restrict or ban medical marijuana, according to the American Civil 
Liberties Union.

Access also tightened after a state Appeals Court decision in 2010 
ruled as illegal some sales of medical marijuana at dispensaries, 
which supplied the drug to state-registered users.

The ruling prompted Schuette to declare that all dispensaries were 
illegal, and it unleashed a fresh round of police raids to close dispensaries.

The shrinking pool of cooperating doctors is one of many reasons that 
Michigan voters should support limited legalization of the drug, said 
Rick Thompson, editor of the Chesterfield Township-based Michigan 
Medical Marijuana Magazine.

"We're seeing all kinds of ways that the authorities want to confuse 
the voters and contradict the intent of the state law, which was to 
provide safe use of this drug that has proven medicinal purposes," 
Thompson said.

Contact Bill Laitner: 586-826-7264 or More Details: Marijuana symposium at Wayne State University

The "National and State Marijuana Reform -- Social, Economic, Health 
and Legal Implications" symposium is 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Jan. 27 at Wayne 
State University Law School's Spencer Partrich Auditorium.

The keynote speaker is former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox. 
Other speakers include WSU professors of law and pharmacy, prominent 
Detroit-area attorneys involved with legalization efforts and 
speakers from nonprofit groups that favor legalization.

The event is open to the public. To register, call 313-577-8032.
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