MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS 'NIGHTMARE' FOR SOME

ESCANABA - A law enforcement official from the Upper Peninsula
Substance Abuse Enforcement Team called Michigan's newly-legalized
medical marijuana law "a nightmare."

Det. Lt. Jeff Racine of UPSET discussed the new law and its
implications for police agencies and county prosecutors. He said the
law is ambiguous and has a lot of loopholes.

"The problem with these new laws is they are not fully understood,"
Racine said. "It's going to be a nightmare for law enforcement
because there are so many loopholes."

Racine said the confusion may cause officers to get to the point
where they may not enforce what law is left regarding marijuana, for
fear of litigation.

"People said this would be like a small step towards the complete
legalization of marijuana. This is more like a major jump towards
legalizing it," he said.

Racine also said there is not a lot of talk about some of the
negative side effects or the fact, he said, that marijuana is a gateway drug.

"Not every person who smokes marijuana becomes a crack smoker or a
heroin user, but every person who does the hard stuff started with
marijuana," he explained.

Racine said statistics show us that there are 10 times more people
driving vehicles under the influence of drugs than there are drunks
on the road.

"The way the law was written, it is written in favor of the user and
against law enforcement. Do you want the brakes changed on your car
by a guy who smoked marijuana on his lunch hour? A very large
percentage of people are going to abuse this law," he said.

Racine also said it's likely many people will try to cloak themselves
in the law wrongfully.

"Probably 90 percent of the medical defenses are going to be false,
and that's a low guess," he said.