LEGAL MARIJUANA POSES POT PUZZLE

Growing Plants for Medical Purposes Will Be Legal - but Having Seeds Won't

Though medical marijuana soon will be legal in Michigan, patients and
their caregivers still will have to break the law to get it, at least
the first time.

Proposal 1 will allow approved patients and their caretakers to
possess and grow the drug, but there won't be a legal way to get
marijuana seeds or seedlings.

"How do you get from point A to point B? There is no law that
protects you there," said James McCurtis, a spokesman for the
Michigan Department of Community Health, "and we are not giving any
advice on how you get your marijuana."

It's a gray area that's common to most of the 13 states that have
passed medical marijuana initiatives. California is alone in allowing
"dispensaries" to sell marijuana on a nonprofit basis.

And "like many things in the world that happen in a legal gray area,
it seems to happen without a great deal of difficulty," said Bruce
Mirken, communications director at the Marijuana Policy Project in
Washington, D.C.

"It's unfortunate that there are limits right now to what a state can
do," he added.

With the possession, distribution and sale of marijuana still illegal
under federal law," Mirken said, "If you set up a full scale
distribution system for seeds or seedlings, you run the risk of
running afoul of the feds."

Lynn Allen is getting ready to cultivate his own marijuana plants.

The 52-year-old Williamston man, who has the bleeding disorder
hemophilia and HIV, contracted from a tainted blood transfusion,
bought a book. He is researching which strains of marijuana might
work best for his condition.

But the lack of protection for those buying seeds "does disturb me a
bit," he said. "I don't know offhand how we'll deal with that unless
they turn a blind eye to it."

That's something that Lansing Police Chief Mark Alley said he won't do.

"We don't plan on turning our backs on illegal behavior," he said.

Still, there are apparently plenty of people in the state interested
in participating in the program.

"We've been getting calls ever since Nov. 5," McCurtis said, "because
a lot of people think the day after the election that the law goes
into effect right away.

It doesn't. The Department of Community Health has until April 4 to
put rules in place for administering the program. After that, it will
take another 20 days or so to process the first requests, McCurtis said.

New Opportunity

Danny Trevino has seen some of the eagerness. The owner of Hydroworld
Hydroponics, a Lansing shop that sells hydroponic equipment,
fertilizer, and high output gardening lights, he said, when Proposal
1 passed, "I got busy."

It's a business opportunity Trevino, 36, isn't going to miss. He's
had T-shirts made that say "Medical Marijuana Specialist." He plans
to start teaching classes on how to grow, using plastic plants.

But asked whether he hoped to serve as a caregiver - the law allows
designated caregivers to grow marijuana for up to five patients -
Trevino replied, "I'll probably be a patient instead."

But it won't be that easy. Proposal 1 specifies which diseases and
symptoms make a patient eligible for the program. To obtain a
registry card, patients will need written certification from a
physician that they qualify. Because marijuana is not approved by the
federal Food and Drug Administration, doctors can't prescribe it.
Caregivers will need to apply as well.

And McCurtis said, "we need to dig deeper. It may require us to go
through medical records, but I don't know that until we actually get
the rules set in stone."

The fees for the program still need to be worked out, McCurtis said,
but the plan is that it will be self-sustaining, requiring no
additional money from taxpayers.

Federal Law 'Supreme'

John Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, emphasized that Proposal 1 hadn't changed anything as
far as the federal government is concerned.

"(Marijuana) is illegal by federal law, and federal law is supreme,"
he said, though he acknowledged that federal law tries "to focus on
major trafficking and distribution."

But Dianne Byrum, spokeswoman for the Coalition for Compassionate
Care, the group that supported the proposal, said there's hope that
President-elect Barack Obama will ease current restrictions.

Indeed, Obama has promised to stop Drug Enforcement Administration
raids on patients in states that allow medical marijuana.

The logic behind Proposal 1 was that "people were getting marijuana
anyway and using it," she said. "This only gives protection to those
seriously ill people who are using marijuana for medical reasons
under the structure of this new law."

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PROPOSAL 1 KEY POINTS

Proposal 1 will:

Permit physician approved use of marijuana by registered patients
with debilitating medical conditions including cancer, glaucoma, HIV,
AIDS, hepatitis C, MS and other conditions as may be approved by the
state Department of Community Health.

Permit registered individuals to grow limited amounts of marijuana
for qualifying patients, up to 12 plants per patient, in an enclosed,
locked facility.

Require Department of Community Health to establish an identification
card system for patients qualified to use marijuana and individuals
qualified to grow marijuana. That system will be in place by April 4.
The first registration cards will be issued later that month.

Permit registered and unregistered patients and primary caregivers to
assert medical reasons for using marijuana as a defense to any
prosecution involving marijuana.