PATIENTS OPPOSE STRICT RULES FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

GRAND RAPIDS -- George Wagoner does not smoke marijuana, but he has
seen firsthand the benefits it offered his late wife while she
battled ovarian cancer.

While he cannot attend Monday's public hearing in Lansing on the
proposed rules for those receiving medical marijuana, the 74-year-old
retired obstetrician from Manistee wants state officials to know how
important it is to make it available as a medicine.

"It's reasonable to have rules and, if we are a compassionate
society, we should have a mechanism where legitimate producers can
provide the medicine to those who need it," said Wagoner from his Florida home.

The Michigan Department of Community Health will hold a hearing at 9
a.m. Monday on the rules to carry out the medical marijuana proposal
that was passed by voters in November. The rules take effect April 9.

A group of Lansing-area patients is expected to attend the hearing to
argue the draft rules impose restrictions on medical marijuana users
that exceed the department's authority, said Karen O'Keefe, director
of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project.

"Among the rules considered problematic are requirements that
patients or caregivers submit written inventory reports of medical
marijuana they grow, that all medical marijuana -- not just plants --
be kept in an enclosed, locked facility, and a definition of public
use that would make it illegal for patients to use medical marijuana
in their own homes with the curtains open," O'Keefe said.

Wagoner said marijuana gave his wife -- who died in 2007 -- some
relief from the violent nausea resulting from her chemotherapy.

"This is just an effective medicine, and we need to stop harassing
people who will benefit from it," he said.