Pubdate: Fri, 25 May 2012
Source: Traverse City Record-Eagle (MI)
Copyright: 2012 The Traverse City Record-Eagle
Contact: http://www.record-eagle.com/opinion/local_story_128175513.html
Website: http://www.record-eagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1336

LEGISLATURE TAKES STEPS ON MEDICAL POT RULES

Soon after Michigan voters approved the state lottery in 1972 by a 
better than 2-1 margin, the Legislature created the legal 
infrastructure necessary to make the law work.

Some of that legislation, in fact, became the single biggest scam in 
state history when lawmakers, after vowing that every penny of 
lottery profits would go to education, quietly passed a bill that 
also cut general fund spending on education one dollar for every 
dollar that came from the lottery. We got a lottery but schools 
didn't gain a dime.

When voters approved Proposal A in 1994 to change the way the state 
pays for public education, there was all kinds of supporting legislation.

But when voters widely approved the medical marijuana ballot measure 
in 2008, the Legislature did little to create the legal underpinnings 
needed to manage the new law, despite warnings that those for whom 
the law was passed - individuals suffering from chronic pain or 
nausea from chemotherapy and radiation - would be least able to 
legally get marijuana.

The situation got worse when downstate courts upheld arrests that 
appeared to be illegal under the new law and individuals successfully 
sued local governments whose laws were not up to date. It was - and 
largely still is - a free-for-all atmosphere. There are too few rules 
and too many people trying to take advantage of the situation, and 
lawmakers have done essentially nothing to resolve the situation.

Now, however, lawmakers have finally created a package of bills to 
address some aspects of the medical marijuana law. Some are good, 
some bad, but at least there is conversation and movement toward 
creating a foundation of rules and regulations.

Some are rock-bottom basic - synchronizing the definition of 
"patient" and "qualifying patient" as well as "caregiver" and 
"primary caregiver" and clarifying when and how a person may assert 
the medical use of marijuana as an affirmative defense if he or she 
is arrested.

Another would define a "bona fide physician patient relationship" 
that would mandate a physician has a relationship with a patient 
before the physician can provide a written certification of need 
necessary to qualify for a medical marijuana ID card.

Others seem aimed at making life more difficult for medical marijuana users.

Eventually, lawmakers and law enforcement officials, either through 
legislation or the courts, must accept the fact that this is the law 
- - and that means protecting patients eligible for care as well as 
cracking down on those simply trying to cash in.

Chemotherapy patients have enough to deal with; voters empathized and 
so must lawmakers and law enforcers.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom