MIXED BAG ON MARIJUANA

Michigan voters will decided whether or not to legalize medicinal
marijuana in a state wide ballot initiative this November.

Although polls show there is growing support for the move, getting
people to speak openly about the subject can be bit more difficult.

According to a September poll by the Michigan Resource Group of
Lansing, 67 percent of voters said they would support the proposal,
while 29 percent said they opposed it. If passed, the law would
permit physician approved use of marijuana for patients with
"debilitating medical conditions" including cancer, Glaucoma,
HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis, as well as other
conditions approved by the Department of Community Health.

Those patients permitted to use marijuana would be given an
identification card and the right to grow marijuana plants in an
enclosed, locked facility. The last portion of the law would also
permit care givers and patients the right to used medical reasons as
a legal defense in marijuana prosecutions.

Joshua Snider, a 30-year-old Petoskey resident, advocated for the use
of marijuana as medicine for a variety of medical conditions. Snider
said his own mild temporal epilepsy was improved with occasional use
of marijuana.

Besides working as a pain killer and an appetite stimulant, Snider
asserted that marijuana also has antispasmodic qualities.

"It works a lot better than any other prescribed medicines," he said.
"A lot of them can make you pretty sick, they mess with your stomach."

Snider is an outspoken advocate for marijuana and helped collect
signatures to get the measure on the statewide ballot, he said it is
not uncommon for people to shy away from speaking about marijuana in public.

"All of it is fear," Snider said. "Right now it's dangerous to use it
under the current law."

While the current ballot initiative would allow patients with
glaucoma to use marijuana, Dr. Tim Jarvi, an ophthalmologist in
Petoskey, is not convinced that marijuana is better other
pharmaceutical treatments already on the market. While marijuana can
reduce ocular pressure, Jarvi pointed out that it also decreases
blood pressure and therefore makes it more difficult to pump
nutrients into the eye through the optic nerve.

"It's impractical," he said. "Even if it was legal we wouldn't use it."

Dr. George Wagoner, a retired obstetrician and gynecologist in
Manistee, admitted that he had no scientific experience with
marijuana. But during his wife's unsuccessful battle against severe
ovarian cancer in 2007, he said they turned to the illegal drug and
found it helped her cope with the pain better than anything else.

Wagoner said his wife developed intractable nausea and vomiting
during her chemotherapy and that other pharmaceutical drugs were ineffective.

"When my wife inhaled the smoke twice, she said the nausea was gone,"
he said. "It took practically none to be effective. I think everyone
in her situation should be allowed to do this legally."

However, there are those, even with a personal knowledge of cancer,
who do not support the current ballot initiative's scope.

Bob McCullough, a 74-year-old Petoskey resident, is in remission from
multiple myeloma and said he understands the need for medicinal
marijuana, but was uncomfortable with people being given the legal
right to grow it. He said that would open up the possibility of
people selling it illegally for profit.

"There is such a strong desire for this stuff, I think it needs to be
done through a pharmacy," he said. "I would like to see it made
available, but only a month's supply at a time. That way a doctor
would know if you are starting to abuse it."

Although marijuana is illegal under federal law, and classified as a
schedule I drug, 12 states have passed medicinal marijuana
legislation. In 2005, Traverse City passed a city ordinance to make
the prosecution of medicinal marijuana cases the lowest priority.
However, both the offices of the county and city prosecutors referred
requests for comment to one another, preferring to stay mum rather
than weigh in on the taboo subject.

Charlevoix County Sheriff George Lasater deferred a request to
comment to his successor, Don Schneider, after admitting he was not
familiar with the ballot language. Although Schneider had yet to read
the language, he said his first reaction was that legalization of
medicinal marijuana would compound the issue of prescription drug
abuse and marijuana use further.

"I think there's always the potential for it to be grossly misused,"
he said. "There are some doctors, although they are few and far
between, that lack integrity and will give a prescription for anything."