A recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling makes it more difficult to prove drugged-driving cases involving marijuana. The high court overturned a 2006 ruling that 11-carboxy-THC -- a long-lasting byproduct of metabolism created when the body breaks down the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana -- is a schedule 1 controlled substance, a drug classification that includes heroin. Now, prosecutors will have to prove drivers had the actual narcotic or its active ingredient in their systems at the time they are alleged to have been driving while drugged. [continues 527 words]
Although this problem does not has a definite solution, it can be abated some ["Medical marijuana polarizes community," News, Nov. 1]. One solvable flaw is the amount of people allowed access to medical marijuana. If doctors were more strict and discerning, there would be less cases and conflicts. Also, if the growing of marijuana were set up and monitored by the state government, then regulation would be much more simple and the line of legality less blurred. The key here is to lessen the number of lawsuits and eliminate the improper use of this resource. Daniel Berry Ladera Ranch [end]
Organizer: Event at Vantage Point to Become Annual Tom Champagne sat Saturday morning in a collapsible chair, admiring a sea of shinning chrome, engines and sparkling paint jobs. Champagne, 68, of Port Huron was shaded from the bright sun by the propped hood of his white, 1946 Ford Thunderbird. His car was one of more than 100 parked Saturday at Vantage Point, just south of the mouth of the Black River, for the first Wheels on the Water car show, sponsored by Acheson Ventures and Moak Real Estate. [continues 333 words]
Students for a More Sensible Drug Policy provided evidence Thursday that hemp is not given justice as an economically and medicinally smart crop by the U.S. government. The group's president, Adam DeVaney, Traverse City graduate student, presented the video, "Hemp for Victory," -- a film produced by the government in 1942 to advocate hemp growth as a show of patriotic support for the war effort -- to more than 20 students in Anspach Hall Room 150. The government's "War on Drugs" and "Partnership for a Drug Free America" campaigns are ineffective, ignorant and funded by corporations with interests that would be infringed by the legalization of marijuana, DeVaney said. [continues 381 words]
