DETROIT POT LAW RAISES QUESTIONS

Drug can't be legally purchased despite passage of proposal.

Thinking about getting some marijuana for your chronic pain, now that
Detroit's ordinance for medical marijuana passed? You have two options:
grow a green thumb or find a reputable drug dealer. While it's now legal to
use marijuana for medical purposes in the city, it cannot be legally
distributed.

"You have to get it the usual way: either grow it yourself or find somebody
who sells it," said Tim Beck, who chairs the Detroit Coalition for
Compassionate Care, which sponsored the Detroit Medical Marijuana Initiative.

The measure passed Tuesday with 59 percent voter approval, but now that the
dust has settled around the highly contested proposal, some are questioning
how the law will work and whether it will send the wrong message.

"I think that if Detroiters had known that they had to get the marijuana
from a drug dealer, they would not have passed this," said retired Detroit
psychologist William H. Marshall.

Under the new law, doctors cannot legally prescribe marijuana. What they
can do is write a recommendation. The patient, however, can only use the
drug in Detroit and it's up to the patient to get it.

As for the recommendation, it's only useful as proof the marijuana is for
medical use.

But a person riding around the city with a bag of marijuana and a written
recommendation still takes a chance of running afoul of the law.

The ordinance does not affect state and federal law and people can still be
arrested for possessing marijuana.

If there is no legal challenge to the marijuana law, the ordinance
amendment could take effect 30 days after the election results are
certified. If there is a legal challenge, that date would be pushed back,
said Michael Karowski, assistant corporation counsel for the city of Detroit.

Sajdah Muhammad, 52, a Detroit resident who has nine children ages 8-30,
worries about what the new law is saying to children.

"This is very bad for our community," Muhammad said. "It sends the wrong
message to our kids that some illegal drugs are OK."

Across the Detroit River, Canada approved medical marijuana in 2001, and
last year the national health service began growing and selling the plant
to patients with prescriptions for it.