VOTE 'YES' ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA PLAN

Proposal 1 on the statewide ballot would create a law authorizing the
use of medical marijuana for ill citizens, with a doctor's approval.

Proponents and opponents have laid out their case before the LSJ
Editorial Board. While both sides have holes in their arguments, the
debate goes to the pro side. The LSJ endorses Proposal 1.

The best line deployed by the pro-medical marijuana camp is they want
to "protect patients from prosecution."

In Michigan, and in the scattering of states that already have
medical marijuana laws, there are people who claim that smoking
marijuana provides relief. Usually this benefit is described as a
reduction in nausea or an increase in appetite.

These people report that they do not find such relief from other
drugs, including marinol, which is a pill carrying THC, a compound
found in marijuana.

The medical establishment, such as the Michigan State Medical
Society, rejects those claims. And that's long been part of the
problem on this issue: Thanks to the government's "war on drugs,"
there's been far too little research done on marijuana's medicinal effects.

A best-case scenario would have been a full-scale research effort
leading to the identification and availability of substances that aid
patients. But the law enforcement/drug war crowd has kept that option
off the table.

This intransigence (and it's notable that the coalition of groups
formed against Prop 1 is heavy on law enforcement groups) forces
voters to make an imperfect choice.

The anti-Prop 1 forces only worsen the situation for voters by their
focus on scare tactics. Prop 1, they say, will make it easy for kids
to get drugs. That's a potent argument against a full-blown adult
legalization measure.

But that's not on the ballot this year. Prop 1 involves an
identifiable group of medical patients acting in concert with their
licensed physicians. The opposition rhetoric is over the top and,
thereby, ineffective.

Prop 1 proponents, though, have their own work to do.

An April 1 editorial approving of a statewide vote also noted, "(Prop
1) doesn't even speak to the point of where sufferers allowed to use
marijuana would actually obtain it. ... If Michigan voters are going
to approve this measure, they deserve to have a good idea of how it's
going to work."

Unfortunately, it's October and it still isn't clear how patients
would first legally obtain the seeds or plants for their personal use.

That's disappointing, though not enough to lead voters to reject this
measure. Vote "yes" on Proposal 1.