MARIJUANA JOURNAL

Marijuana Journal is a new column tracking the implementation of the
state medical marijuana law. The column is written by Greg Francisco,
the executive director of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association,
and will run weekly in City Pulse and every Monday before publication
online.

I wasn't sure what to expect on Jan. 5 when the state Department of
Community Health held a public hearing on a set of proposed
administrative rules for the state's new medical marijuana system. I
knew that many of the rules either directly conflicted with the law
approved by voters, threatened patient privacy, or gave the department
expanded powers beyond those spelled out in the law. But I was neither
sure if any of that was going to matter to the powers that be, nor how
many others would attend the hearing to make their own concerns known.

I shouldn't have feared. As the executive director of the Michigan
Medical Marijuana Association, it was my job to rally the troops, and
rally they did.

At the meeting, 150 chairs were provided and it was almost standing
room only.

Patients from as far away as Marquette turned out to voice their
concerns with the proposed rules.

In addition to the public hearing, the department was taking written
comments through 5 p.m., Jan. 10. Late on the afternoon of Jan. 10, I
spoke with a department administrator overseeing the rule-making
process. She told me that the department had received scores of
written comments. The next step would be to go through those comments,
organize them and then begin to look at revising the rules.

Given the strict time lines involved, the department expects to make
those revised rules available to the public on or about Jan. 30. There
is no way to know absolutely what the final rules will look like until
we actually see them. But based on my conversations with department
officials and the comments made at the public hearing, I believe the
medical marijuana community has every reason to be optimistic that the
revised rules will be much more workable.

I encourage everyone to visit the Web site of the Michigan Medical
Marijuana Association, www.MichiganMedicalMarijuana.org , to learn
more about this new law.