MEDICAL MARIJUANA: MICHIGAN SHOULD NOT REPEAT CALIFORNIA'S ERROR

A decade ago, voters in California approved a proposal to legalize
smoked marijuana for so-called "medical" purposes. Today, even the
proposal's most vocal supporters admit the California law has
resulted in "chaos," "pot dealers in storefronts" and millions of
dollars being dumped "into the criminal black market."

Michigan's Proposal 1 is just like the California law. While its
stated intentions to help people experiencing serious pain are well
meaning, Proposal 1's vague language, careless loopholes and
dangerous consequences place Michigan communities and kids at risk.
Michigan voters should reject it.

Proposal 1 allows one person to grow and provide marijuana for a
number of other people, as long as the marijuana is kept in a locked facility.

What happens when that locked facility is your neighbor's garage or a
strip mall storefront, like they have in California? Maybe you think
this can't happen in Michigan, but consider this:

In North Hollywood, there are now more pot shops than Starbucks
stores, and last week a security guard was gunned down outside a Los
Angeles pot shop.

Every day, diligent parents and teachers fight a difficult battle to
protect teens from drugs and their influences. Law enforcement
officials in California point to their state's marijuana law as a
cause for the dramatic increase in drug use among high school
students, and is a main reason why groups like the Michigan Sheriffs'
Association and the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police are
opposed to Proposal 1.

For doctors and hospitals, those on the front lines of providing
medical care to Michiganians everyday, Proposal 1 is "bad medicine."
For one thing, Proposal 1 doesn't require a prescription. It not only
relies on but promotes smoking as a delivery mechanism.

And, Proposal 1 could result in costly lawsuits over such things as
whether doctors and hospitals must allow patients to smoke marijuana
in a doctor's office or hospital room, despite every other law banning smoking.

The Michigan State Medical Society, the Michigan Health and Hospital
Association and the Michigan Osteopathic Association all oppose
Proposal 1 because smoking marijuana is not the answer to the
important scientific questions surrounding the effective care of patients.

Proposal 1 is many things, but above all else it is a law of
unintended consequences.

The dangerous implications of its flaws and loopholes have brought
together Michigan's doctors, hospitals, sheriffs, police chiefs,
prosecutors, family groups, and taxpayer advocates to urge voters to
say "no" to Proposal 1.

California's "medical" marijuana proposal brought chaos; Michigan's
proposal brings an opportunity to learn from California's mistake.